All it took was Eye Contact
by silver-hedgehog
Summary: It's after summer and school is starting back. Mariam develops an interest towards her family's background meanwhile Max develops an interest towards Mariam. MariamXMax, TysonXHilary, ReiXMariah and mentions KaiX?
1. Prologue: a little in sight

**All it Took was Eye Contact**

Hi, I'm Silver-hedgehog and this is my first fanfic. It's based on my favourite pairing: Max/ Mariam. It took me a while to finally decide to write one and when I did I couldn't decide whether to post it on the internet or not. Please tell me about any grammar errors or anything that I should change about the characters.

Disclaimer: Sadly I don't own any of the characters except for the teachers who aren't even that important!

* * *

**Prologue: A Little Insight**

"I can't believe you are leaving to go back to boarding school again." Whined woman's voice.

"It's no big deal." Responded a voice belonging to a 17 year- old bluenette, "I've been going there for the past few years and I'm sure I can survive." she added while trying to reassure this older women.

The older women started to unload the clothes from Mariam's suitcase she was adamant that she wasn't about to let her go without trying to stop her, "You can always be home schooled, that is if you want..." The woman offered before Mariam put an arm round her shoulder and signaled her to take a seat on top of the silk duvet that was lying neatly on Mariam's bed.

Mariam sighed and looked at the woman's eyes, "You know what I want." She started in a very soft tone. "You know he was respected and kind guy. You have to let me go, he may not be here anymore but I feel like I need to get closer to him and this is the only way." She explained simply... again, "I know how much better the private schools are but I really need to do this to feel closer to him."

She broke the eye contact that she made with her, "If you must but don't forget, if your unhappy at anytime-"

"Call and you'll transfer me to somewhere that I'll be happier at." Mariam finished for her, "We've been through this before." Mariam pointed out as she got up and started to pack her items again, "Believe me," Mariam continued as she made eye contact again, "I'll be fine there." She finished before she smiled and broke the eye contact.

Mariam spoke again after a long while of silence, "Plus the school's only at the top of the village...Less than a 20 minute walk from here."

* * *

"Oh My God!" Shouted Tyson into a pillow, "I can't believe school starts back in 2 days." Most of his speech was muffled in the pillow.

"And that we're leaving early tomorrow." Max added while sitting on his sleeping mat. He was staying at Tyson's place along with Rei, Kenny and Diachi so they could all travel to school tomorrow.

"I'm okay with that part." He said with his head no longer in the pillow

The others gave him a confused look.

"No more sparring sessions with grandpa." He pointed out as if it was obvious.

But just then his grandpa Granger jumped into the room and swung his katana until it landed directly in front of Tysons face, no contact of course, "We're not dropping your training," Announced grandpa.

"WHAT!" Exclaimed Tyson.

"We live so close to the school so I thought we can meet up 4 times a week for 2 hours, straight after school." He stated, "I'll give you tomorrow off but, if you forget to come, I'll personally come pick you up from school and we can train there."

Tyson looked slightly annoyed while the others chuckled a bit.

* * *

Voila, my prologue


	2. Chapter 1: First Day,First Challenge

**All it took was Eye Contact**

The prologue was kind of random and crap but I wrote it less than an hour so what did you expect.

Disclaimer: Sadly I still don't own any of the awsome characters.

* * *

**Chapter 1: First Day, First Challenge**

"Mariam! Wake up before we're late for homeroom!" Shouted Mariah from right beside Mariam's bed before went down to the kitchen to 'make' breakfast.

Mariam picked up her little round analogue alarm clock that was sitting neatly on the window sill behind the headboard of her single bed. The clock read 7:30 which meant that she had one and a half hour to shower, get dressed and eat whatever Mariah (her roomate) claimed she made.

Anyway, with a groan, Mariam got up.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Thump. A hand belonging to a certain sleepy blond teen switched the alarm off. He pulled his body out from under the soft, light blue duvet and checked the time. 7:45. 'That's awfully early' he tought to himself before he sat up and looked around the dorm.

Empty. He concluded that Rei was up and out like his routine from last year before he thought: 'I'll sleep another 5 more minutes.' And with that on his mind he slumped back down.

Mariam stepped out of the bathroom shared between her and Mariah and grabbed her white towel and wrapped it round her dripping wet body. She felt refreshed and more awake than before. Mariam dried her hair and then tied it up into its usual way with the ribbon round her head. After that she changed into the clothes she chose: a pair of three quarter lenght of skinny jeans; a white tank top over a normal peach t-shirt and a pair of silver and white flat sandals. After all she is tall enough without heels on.

After that she left the bathroom and headed back to her dorm, grabbed her bag and headed towards the kitchen that is split amongst a lot of students.

"Morning." Mariam greeted as she entered the kitchen, " What did you not make for breakfast?" (This is Mariam's way of asking What's for breakfast).

As soon as Mariah heard Mariam's voice, she immediatly shoved Rei away from the front of the stove and tried to look as if she was making the pancakes, "Hope my famous pancakes are okay." Mariah said as she tried to flip the pancake in the frying pan without the spatula. One side was burnt while the other was still raw.

"It's okay. I'll eat one of the edible ones that Rei made." She said as she picked up one off a plate and started to eat it.

* * *

Max finally got out of his bed to open his room door after hearing it being knocked continuously.

"What." He said drowsily before he realised who was on the other side of the barely open door.

"Max." Emily complained while she entered his dorm. Emily is Max's on/off girlfriend of almost a year. She was getting tired off his lack of commitment but looking at Max now (topless), she realised that she is lucky that they hadn't broken up yet despite the number of times that they have argued.

As soon as Max realised that the person knocking- who by the way is now in their room- was, he walked back towards the bed and picked up a shirt that he tossed onto the bed last night. "Your early." He finally said.

"I'm not early." said Emily who was clearly trying to hide the anger that was present in her voice. "You're late!" She only tries to hide the anger because she was always constantly being called up-tight by everyone. "You promised to meet me for breakfast today at twenty past eight."

"Last time I checked it was quarter to eight," Max started to say what he remembered, "and I was going to sleep for another fi... Oh." He stopped as he mentally peiced together what happened after that. Max knew about his habit of allowing himself to sleep longer than he initially thought, "Sorry..." He mumbled as he put his arms round Emily's curvey waist.

"It's okay... I geuss." Emily forgave reluctantly.

* * *

"Okay class." Said Mrs Scartlet, their homeroom teacher, who also happens to look like a pushover but according to Hilary she is an 'awful teacher'.

The teacher started to babble on about something else and Mariam started to zone out from her long and boring speech. Instead, she decided to trace that loud, disturbing snoring sound that was easily identifyable.

The noise come from the back of the class where a certain cap wearing boy was causing it, Tyson- how typical.

Even the teacher decided that she wouldn't be able to continue to talk over his unnecessary pollution of noise. She picked up a large stack of textbook from the front of the class and dropped it directly beside the sleeping teen's head.

Nothing. There was no response from Tyson. Not that the class expected one after all Tyson was very well known at school for being able to sleep through just about anything (even the loud 'inccident' caused by Mariah and partly Mariam last year).

What happened instead was Rei got out of his seat. "Did you really expect him to change that much?" He asked rhetorically.

As Rei knew she would, Mrs Scartlet shook her head in response. "I can only wish." She sighed.

Some students giggled at that.

"Let's try this." Said Rei before he inhaled deeply "TYSON! I'M MAKING PANCAKES! IF YOU DON'T WAKE UP THEN YOU WON'T GET ANY!" He shouted off the top of his voice.

Tyson literally leaped up into the air but quickly realised that he was in class, "Darn it! I wish I got up earlier!" Said Tyson disappointedly for a joke.

Everyone laughed at him- the class clown is back! Mariam noticed Max's laughter (mainly because he sat at the same double desk as Tyson). She noticed that Max looked different from last year but she coulndn't quite lay her finger on what. Whatever the difference was, she knew that it had to be pretty drastic seeing as she actually noticed him this year.

"It's nice to see your new waking up Tyson techniques," Mrs Scartlet praised, "And new taste in girls." She finished as she turned to face Mariah, who was sitting next to Mariam.

After that the bell went.

"Okay everyone, don't forget to pick up your new timetable before you leave." She announced while placing everyones' copy of their individual schedules.

Mariam found hers almost immediatly and read out her first period class 'science' she read aloud at the same time as someone else. She looked up to see who repeated her.

That person also looked up and made eye contact with her. It was Max.

Mariam's eyes met Max's just as she looked up but she broke it after she flashed a smile and turned away to head to her class.

* * *

Mariam got to science quite quickly and grabbed a bench to herself until all the benches had at least one person at it. Some students had to share a work surface and luckily Mariam had to share the bench with someone she knew well and liked.

"I'm sitting here." stated Mariah as she dumped her pink shoulder bag on the bench and rummaged around in it.

"Sure but lets not repeat last year." Mariam teased.

"What happened last-" Mariah stopped herself because she remembered what Mariam was going on about, "You mean the 'inccident', right?" Asked Mariah.

*FLASHBACK*

"Oh god!" Panicked Mariam quietly, "What do we do now?" She asked while holding up a beaker of water like liquid.

"I don't know!" Replied Mariah who was also panicking like mad, "Try heating it." She suggested as she took the beaker and held it above a flame. But she forgot about the tripod and ended up burning her small and delicate fingers before she ended up emptying the contents of the beaker into the flame and parts of the bench. The reagent they created, turned out to be highly flamable, and caused the flame to spread all over the work surface.

But that wasn't the worst part. The whole school had to be evacuated out of the science building due to the intoxicating fumes produced by the chemical reaction that happened between the reagent, fire and half of the furniture in the lab.

Mariam and Mariah's only response to this was: "Oh. My. God."

*END FLASH BACK*

"OH NO!" Shouted Mariah. She winded up attracting a lot of attention.

Even the teacher couldn't pretend he didn't hear it like how he usually does, "What's wrong?" He asked, looking a bit impatient.

"A lot." Replied Mariah. "I'm wearing my favourite t-shirt." She said as she looked down at her pink top which had silver illegible writing on it in selected areas.

Mr Sanders, the science teacher who happened to be the unlucky one to be teaching the 'inccident' causers again, caught on to what they where talking about and he replied by saying: "You're going to need a lot of new t-shirts this year if you want to pass my class and sit next to Mariam."

"Yeah Mariah." mocked Rei from across the class. He was also in their class last year and remembered the 'inccident'.

"Watch your tongue mister!" shouted Mariah while sending him a mean look and waving an angry fist at him.

Max and Rei,who are lab partners, just laughed at Mariah's actions.

Even though Max wasn't in their science class last year, he new about the 'inccident' anyway. Afterall, who didn't.

Mariam wanted to defend Mariah because she was making a fool out of herself but decided not to. People were getting involved unneccesarily so it was bound to get interesting.

The teacher tried to calm Mariah down: "Calm down Mariah." Was all he said but once you pick on Mariah, threre's no way of backing out of a fight.

"Yeah Mariah, you should listen to the teacher." Tyson provoked as he joined in the teasing, "Before you set off another explosion!" he finished just before he burst out laughing.

Pretty much everyone laughed at that one even Mariam but this only angered Mariah even more and Mariam was aware of that so she stopped and instead she looked at Max while he laughed at her. Mariam finally figured out what is different about Max- his eyes. She could actually see them now. Maybe the change wasn't as drastic as she imagined it to be. 'He's kinda cute.' she thought 'Too bad he's taken.'

"ENOUGH ALREADY!" Exclaimed Mariah. This caused everyone to draw their attention to her... again, "Tyson. I challenge you to a bey battle. Today, after school at the local park."

"Uh... I can't today. Not straight after school anyway."

"Why?" Demanded Mariah, who had her hands on her hips.

"Because he has to meet his grand-father for a sparring session." Answered Mariam for him. "I also know that Tyson still hasn't been able to defeat him yet."

Tyson looked at her, clearly suprised by why she knows all this.

Mariam tapped the side of her nose before she sat on her seat again. Once again she made eye contact with Max and she broke it again with one of her smiles.

'I wonder if she's like that to everyone.' Max wondered to himself, 'Snap out of it' Max thought as he shook his head 'I already have a girlfriend.'


	3. Chapter 2: Did You Hear?

**All it took was Eye Contact**

Here's chapter 2 of my first fanfic! It took me a long time to type this but it did make me add a little bit more to it. Sorry about any grammar errors. Writing is not a strong point.

* * *

**Chapter 2: Did You Hear?**

Last night's battle between Tyson and Mariah was intense. Loads of people from school came to the local park to witness the first challenge of the school year. Today in hoomroom, this was the only thing that the student body was willing to talk about.

*FLASHBACK*

Tyson and Mariah were completely absorbed in their battle, so focused that they didn't even care about the other students that had heard about the challenge and came to watch. But then again, they were probably used to it because of the world championship matches. They were probably more pressured to win then rather than now.

Mariam sat on the really tall, old brickwall that no one else sat on- mainly because they could never figure out how to climb up the wall. Mariam sat on this wall every time she came to watch a challenge, she's sat on it so much that the wall is like her special seat or her turf.

On the opposite side from Mariam's seat, Kenny, Rei and Diachi were standing closer to the dish than most of the other on-lookers. On the shallow wall behind the gang, Max sat on the wall with his arm round Emily's shoulder. They watched the match from where they sat and commented on the match occasionally.

Some of the on-lookers decided to spice the match up a little and launch their blades into the match.

Max didn't like the idea of spicing up the match, so he got up and launched Draciel at the intuding matches to keep the challenge fair.

But while he wasn't looking, Diachi (being the immature little boy he is) decided to launch his blade in to not spice things up but to 'juice things up' .

Diachi's plans didn't get far. His blade was shortly knocked out by an incoming blue blade often refered to as Sharkrash by its owner, who leaped off the wall to do what Max had been doing- keeping the match fair or so everyone thought. That was her initial intension but after knocking Diadhi's blade out she had to agree that the beybattle was turning a bit slow moving so she decided to drop Max's job and do Diachi's instead.

On the contrary, Max still didn't believe in making the match unfair no matter who the other blader was so he relaunched his blade at Mariam's but unlike Diachi's, hers didn't fly out of the dish because she anticipated Max's move.

"You know, I'm not a fan a cheaters," Started Max "But cuties don't make a difference." He finished while focusing on their beyblades in the dish, near Tyson's white blade and Mariah's pink blade.

Mariam felt slightly flattered by his compliment but decided that it would be fun to mess with his head a bit. "Are you trying to compliment me, or mock me?"

"I was-" Max stopped himself from saying anymore when he noticed his blades unusual behaviour. "What's going on?" He asked, mainly aiming his question to Mariam instead of Kenny and Dizzi which is who he usually asks when something abnormal happens, whether it is beyblade related or not. Their blades didn't look like they were fighting each others; they looked more like they were... courting?

Almost straight after Max asking the question, his blade and his opponent's blade was knocked out of the dish. Both of them responded by catching their own blades and looking at the two main competitors. Tyson and Mariah's match was back in full swing again just like how they started.

"This is our match!" Exclaimed Tyson and Mariah while focusing on the match.

"Temper Mariah." Commented Mariam as she examined her blade for any scratches, afterall it did seem like her blade was pushed right up against Max's Draciel while they were 'courting'.

Meanwhile on Max and Tyson's side of the dish, Max, like Mariam examined his blade before he had Emily came whining at him.

"Max!" Emily started with. His name was such a simple word but it is powerful enough (when said by Emily like that) to let Max know that he was going to be in for a sleepless night...

*END FLASHBACK*

Even when the whole of Mariam's year were running laps (5 to be exact) in first period P.E, all she heard was, "Did you see the battle last night." Or: "I can't believe that someone as strong as Tyson only tied with Mariah." Either that or something else along the lines of it. Talking about the match only gave the students more energy to run laps first thing in the morning... well almost everyone.

Poor Max. He was kept up all night last night by Emily, who gave him an all night lecture on why it is wrong to flirt with other girls. Max wanted to say that he was barely flirting but he couldn't get a word in with Emily babbling nonstop. Anyway, due to this is he lost most of his 'vital' sleeping time which caused him to be the second last to finish running his share of laps. Of course Tyson was the last person to finish due to his eyes being unable to stay open during all his morning classes (not to metion most of his afternoon ones too). So basically Tyson has completed about 3 meters out of the 1000 he has to run which is a step up from last year- he didn't even make it onto the track last year.

Max yawned as he walked round the inside lane of the track. He was exhausted from the lack of sleep from last night's lecture. Most of the class had at least lapped him once except for Tyson for various reasons, but also noticed Mariam living up to her rep of being a fast runner. Why did he notice her of all people? Simple because her long blue hair would slap him across the face everytime she ran past him.

"Come on! Hurry up!" Shouted the caoch, who is (putting it nicely) quite curvey. He opened another packet of crisps and shoved almost half the packet into his mouth at once.

'No wonder why the guy is that big.' thought Mariam as she started her final lap.

"Maaaax." shouted a voice from behind Mariam. It was Emily shouting for Max (obviously), who was a few meters in front of Mariam.

Max recognised the name and the voice and to Emily's suprise, he sped right up. He didn't have the energy to deal with Emily and her long (and most of the times, boring) lectures or 'relationship conversations' as she called them.

Mariam chuckled when she realised that Max had sped up after hearing Emily shout his name. 'Poor guy.' she thought to herself.

"Max, why are you running from me?" Emily asked when she caught up with him. Max had almost ran a full lap before he slowed down again.

"I'm not running from you." he lied when the thought in his head said something like: 'OH MY GOD SHE IS GOING TO LECTURE ME ABOUT LAST NIGHT AGAIN. I NEED TO RUN FAR AWAY!' Despite his thought, he started to walk for a wee bit to catch his breathe before he worked on finishing at a steady pace- anything that made him far away from Emily.

"You are too." she protested as she jogged faster to catch up with Max.

"No. I just want to finish so I can sit down." He argued back and pointed towards the bleachers which was a terrible mistake because Mariam was the only one there.

"Max!" Emily moaned.

* * *

After a long distance run in P.E class everyone had English, a class that was compulsary for every student, like their previous class except in English class all the students were divided into sets according to their ability to tackle the subject.

Max entered the english department and headed towards his class, which fortunately for him was across the hall from Emily's. He had just made up with her again and the last thing he wanted was to have his easily jealous girlfriend in the same class as him, watching if not all, most of his actions. He likes her but he does wish that she can learn to loosen up.

"Welcome to class." Greeted the teacher who was standing at the door, waiting for her students to arrive. "Please find the group with your name on it." She commanded but not in a strict manner. Now this teacher really appealed to him as a pushover.

Max observed the classroom. He wasn't familiar with this class maybe becauses he's never had a class with the tables arranged into little squares for himself and three others. He found his name on a sheet of paper quite quickly. It lying on the empty table so he figured that the rest of his group hadn't arrived yet. His eyes scanned the sheet the other people in his group were: Hilary, he remembered her as being extremely loud all the time and occasionally pushy; Rick, a good friend of Emily's so I better watch my tongue and last of all... Mariam. He didn't know her well enough to say anything afterall he had never been in any classes with her except for hoomroom.

Max chose one of the two seats that faced the window; the other two faced a wall. He pulled a pen from the back pocket of his jeans and prepared for class while he waited for all his other classmates to arrive. Rick arrived shortly after Max, who started to go into his daydream state.

He waved his hand infront of Max's face, "You awake or not?" He asked, not exactly nicely.

The teacher overheard Rick's question and spoke up, "Rick, you know the rules in here. Proper sentences, afterall this is the top set."

"Sorry Miss Price." He apologized. "What I meant was: Max, Are you concious?" He rephrased in a fake caring voice, only to get the teacher's approving nod, the one she always does before she looks away.

"This is the top set?" Max questioned, clearly suprised at the decision made by the department. "Am I really capable?"

"Sure you are." Hilary answered for him.

Max turned round to see her walking with Mariam. They were both soaking wet from the shower they've just had.

"Oh no." Rick suddenly blurted out, "Not you again." What he said was aimed for Hilary who was in his class last year and all the years before that. He appeared to have some sort of memory of her.

"What's that suppose to mean?" Hilary demanded aggressively as she sat on the seat across from his desk.

Mariam took the last seat at that group, the one beside Hilary and across from Max, who at the moment was sitting quietly while being amused by his argumentative group.

English was going to be a rather interesting class...

* * *

"OH MY GOD!" shreiked Mariah excitedly as she entered her dorm to tell her bored roomate, who was reading a book.

"What are you 'oh my god'ing about?" Mariam questioned without lifting her attention from her novel.

"The new school year dance!" Mariah announced proudly.

"So?" Mariam fired at her. She got up from her semi-lying down position and put her book into one of her bags and started to head towards the door.

"Soooo we get to choose from lots and lots of pretty dresses and try-" she suddenly noticed that her roomate was almost out of the room completely."Wait!"

* * *

"And that is why I need to stay away from Emily." Max finished telling the others (being Tyson, Kenny, Rei, Diachi). They were all at the sandwich cafe that was situated just at the entrance of the campus.

"So that's why you want to avoid her," Rei nodded in comprehension, "because of the dance."

"Weren't you listening," Max snapped at him "Not want to, I need to avoid her." Max corrected.

"What about the other girls in your other classes?" Asked Tyson after he took a massive bite from his apparently 'not quite a foot long' sandwich.

"I don't sit ne-" Max started until he remembered, "English class, Mariam and Hilary." The last thing he needed was to be hearing other people talk non-stop about something that was only going to last a few hours for the next six days or so.

"Well if it makes you feel better Mariah told me that Mariam's not into these type of things but Hilary on the other hand... Good luck trying to deal with her." Rei warned.

Just then, two other people walked into the sandwich cafe.

"You have to." whined Mariah

"No I don't." countered Mariam.

"Yes. You do."

"Believe me, I don't"

"Speak of the devil." Said Rei quite loudly to get his girlfriend's attention.

Mariah dragged Mariam towards their table. Mariam sat on one of the seats while Mariah sat on Rei's lap. "You were talking about me?" She asked innocently.

"No." lied Rei even though he was making obvious that ia was a lie. "What makes you say that?" Rei was clearly messing with Mariah's naive nature.

"Well you did say: 'speak of the devil.' which tells me that you were gossiping about me." She pointed out quite quickly for the Mariah that they all knew.

"Fair point, but that's the whole point of saying it while your not around." he countered back "If I wanted you to hear it I would've told what I wanted to say instead of gossiping behind your back" He added.

Mariam got out of her seat. "I'll be back in a few minutes." she said to them before she turned round, "Ozuma, Joseph, Gorilla." She shouted across the cafe.

"What did you call me?" Demanded Dunga, clearly offended by Mariam's way of showing him affection.

Mariah took Mariam's empty seat which was beside Rei and started the conversation. "Mariam refuses to go to the dance." She started as she glanced over to where she was standing. "She wants me to stop trying to convince her to go to the dance this Saturday."

"And you're going to be a good girl and do as she commands?" Questioned Rei. He was unsure as to whether what he said is a quetion or a statement.

"Yeah like that's going to happen." Mariah answered sarcastically.

"What are you up to?" Rei asked her suspiciously.

"Just answer one question." Mariah said before she asked them: "What do you want to see her wearing?" Mariah asked before she immediatly added: "That is dance appropriate." If she didn't add that she would probably be buried in answers like: 'a bikini' or even worse, 'nothing'.

Kenny finally decided to look up from his laptop and spoke up for a change. "Well, she's slim and tall. That really says it all."

"Wait. I'm tall and slim." Mariah said. "I can buy something that will fit me for her."

"You're skinny." Said Tyson honestly, "And tall if you stand next to Diachi."

"Hey!" Mariah and Diachi tried to defend themselves at the same time.

"Anyway back on topic guys." Rei said.

"It's okay." Mariah said smugly, "I have this all under control..." She then let out a semi-evil laugh.

The just others stared at her.

* * *

Hope you liked it. I'll try to improve on all the aspects that you point out through a review. Hint hint.


	4. Chapter 3: Break up and Blow up

**All it took was Eye Contact**

Chapter 3 is all typed up at last. I actually have it all written out on paper but I just don't type fast enough. I should probably type my ideas straight out into my laptop but I'm trying to limit how much time I spend on it because I'm meant to be studying. So far, it's not working...

Anyway, enough about me and on with the story!

Diclaimer: Are you suprised that I don't own beyblade?

* * *

**Chapter 3: Break Up then Blow Up**

Max and Rei were in their dorm resting after a long day that just seemed to drag on and on. They were both feeling relaxed and the last thing they wanted was to be distirbed from the lazy atmosphere. Before they knew it (actually they probably saw it coming) they heard a very rough and impatient sounding knock on the door.

Rei noticed that Max had made no attempts to get up and answer the door so Rei did it instead. He turned the knob slightly but the other oerson on the other side shoved the door right open with so much force that it hit Rei's nose, "Oww!" Rei yelled in pain. Fortunately, it wasn't hard enough to burst a capillary. "oh dear." he added after he saw who it was. He suddenly felt like he was in a better situation than Max was going to be in for the next few hours.

It was an infuriated Emily. "Max!" She shouted.

Max was in for it and he knew it. "Hi Emily." He started to try to sweet talk her into a less angry- scary- threatening state. In Max's opinion one adjective isn't enough to describe the way Emily was- so he combined three.

"What happened in English class today?" She demanded with her arms folded across her chest tightly. Her cold glare was focused on Max as he got up from his bed.

"Poetry." He said as if it was no big deal because it wasn't.

Rei quickly opened the door again. "I'll be back after I... uh... shoot pidgeons." With that said hesitantly, Rei was out of the room and speeding right down the corridor and out of the building.

The pair ignored him and continued on with their discussion.

"Well I heard something else," Emily threw at him. "Something to do with a certain pair of 'priceless jade eyes'."

*FLASHBACK*

"Settle down class." Shouted the teacher. "I thought that writing some poetry would be a nice start to the year." The teacher was handing out a sheet of paper to every student.

"In pairs, choose a good or bad quality or appearance of your partner. Next, right down the connotations of the appearance/quality before you attempt to incorprate it into your poem." Hilary read out.

Mariam and Rick were lip synching her the whole time.

"What kind of task is this?" Max questioned as he examined the hand out the Hilary had just read out.

"One that she makes us do every year." Mariam answered as she started to write something down on a different sheet of paper. "It's so easy and boring to do."

"Are you doing me again?" Hilary asked Mariam.

Mariam nodded in response.

"Well Mariam has it easy then." Rick suddenly let out. "You're loud and annoying. What else is there to say?" He asked rhetorically.

"Ummm excuse me, what about my bubbly personality and my cunning nature." Hilary defended.

"What about them?" Rick questioned.

"I believe that they are two valid points." Hilary argued

"Yeah, but too bad you don't have either of them."

Mariam looked at Max. She made sure that she had eye contact with his light blue eyes before she spoke. "Why don't we write about each others instead. We won't be able to talk to them for a while." Mariam suggested and pointed out before she looked at her two arguing classmates. "That way we'll get something done... Unlike them."

"Okay then." Max agreed as he watched Mariam smile.

"I would write about one of your good qualities but the only good one is that you don't have any." Hilary shouted at him.

Rick gave her a weird look. "That doesn't even make sense."

"Sure it does. Any good qualities on you would be automatically made negative."

Mariam shook her head and looked away. "I don't know you too well so I'll do your appearance."

"Ditto." Max said, he already decided what he was going to do anyway. "I mean your eyes should be easy. They're green like emeralds or jades, both are priceless."

Mariam smiled at him.

*END FLASHBACK*

"And that's what hppened... Nothing."

"Yeah then what happened after that." Emily urged him to go on. 'He must've done something wrong. Rick would never lie to me.' Emily thought.

Max groaned then continued.

Mariah was heading back to her dorm after she bought some food from the sandwich cafe when she noticed Rei slumped at one of the benches. At first Mariah thought that he was a hungry, slepping hobo until she got up close. "Rei?"

He looked up at her. "Hey Mariah." He sat up and made some room on the green bench for her.

She sat closely to him. "What are you doing here?" she asked him. "I thought you were going to be spending the rest of the evening relaxing."

Rei sighed. "I thought so too." He replied

"Then why are you here? Were you trying to avoid me?" Mariah asked as if her geuss was correct.

"NO NO!" Rei immediatly answered before he looked at her seriously. "My dorm happens to be the World War 3 battle ground at the moment."

Mariah's eyes widened at that until she realised that Max and Emily are arguing was what he really meant. Mariah gave him a quick kiss. "Why don't we go to my dorm and I'll show you Mariam's suprise dress." She grabbed her boyfriends hand and started to drag him towards her dorm.

"What about Mariam? Where is she?" Rei asked her.

"Relax." Mariah assured him. "She'll be with Ozuma and them."

* * *

A few hours later, Rei returned to his dorm. He couldn't hear Max or Emily's voice from outside the building so the war was obviously over.

"Did you shoot any pidgeons?" Max mocked when he sensed Rei's presence inthe room. He didn't lift his attention from his laptop.

"No, Mariah said it's wrong to do something like that." Rei played along. "But I did get to see something interesting."

"Like what?" Max questioned as he reached forand took a sip from the bottle of orange juice that was sitting on the small wooden table that was in front of the sofa.

"Like the secret dress that Mariah is hidding from Mariam." Rei noticed that Max was getting interested inthe subject of their conversation so he decided to let little bits of the dresses description out. "It's white and it... is..." now Rei was clearly messing with Max's head. "Pretty."

Max figured out what Rei was trying to do and decided that he should lead the conversation into another direction. "I'm not going to the dance anymore." This earned him a look from Rei that urged him to go on. "I was only going to go in the first place because of Emily and now that we've broken up, there's no need for me to go."

"You can always go solo." Rei suggested. "I mean I would if I didn't have Mariah."

"That's a lie." Max accused. "We both said that we would never go solo to a dance." he reminded him.

"That was a long time ago." Rei pointed out. "Did I mention the two large slits on the dress?" Rei thought that trying to tempt Max about the dress might be able to convince him into going to the dance. Rei recognised Max's 'undescisive' look and started to let more information about the dress seep in.

"Wait where was Mariam during this?" he asked.

"With Ozuma." Answered Rei before he put the conversation back on track. "Now are you going to go or what?"

"I don't know." Max said. "I think I'll need time to recover from the break up."

Rei decided that changing tactics might work better and faster. "You'll be all alone 'cause everyone who is someone is going to be there."

"You know what." Max started. "I have a new shirt that I've been dying to wear. I think this Saturday would be the perfect time to wear it."

* * *

The next day in science class...

It was almost completely silent in class except for the bubbling noises of the flasks of chemicals and a sudden outburst.

"Everyone duck!" Mariam warned/commanded everyone while panicking. Within seconds after yelling the command, a large volume of bubbles started to spew all over the bunsen burner before a strong flame arose from their experiment. Mariam saw this coming, after all she was working with Mariah, who wasn't good at the practical side of science after proving it for the past few years.

"A new record I believe." the teacher commented after he put out the fire using the extinguisher. "It hasn't even been five minutes into the experiment." He started to stroke the bald patch that used to have a beard growing out of it.

"My t-shirt!" Whined Mariah. It was stained and had an odd aroma.

"Your t-shirt? What were you trying to do?" yelled Tyson when he got up from the floor. "Kill us all?"

"No!" Mariah argued. "Just you."

"Luckily I ducked! Otherwise who knows where my head would be!"

"You were sleeping on the floor anyway!" Mariah defended. "I mean, who couldn't hear you snore."

Mariam tried to lighten up the situation. "At least it's not as bad as last year, right?"

Rei decided to join in. "No one was hurt."

Max thought that it would be fun to join in as well. "Except for the beard." Max joked but the teacher shot him a warning look so he immediatly tried to cover up what he said. "I mean, at least we didn't need to evacuate the building... or the whole school."

* * *

Saturday afternoon. (a.k.a. the day of the dance)...

"Mariah?" Asked Mariam as she looked at the pink haired teen from behind. Mariam had actually entered the room a while ago but she noticed that Mariah was sneeking about in their wodrobe so she kept quiet for a while. "What are you hiding in there?"

Mariah turned round looking completely startled. "Nothing." She lied.

Mariam knew that she was lying and shot her a look that said: 'Are you sure you want to lie to me?'.

"Okay! I give up." Mariah finally said (after about five seconds) before she turned round to the wodrobe and rummaged about. When she turned round again with a pink dress in her hands. "I was admiring my dress for tonight." She lied again. 'Luckily my dress was in there' Mariah thought to herself.

"Right." Mariam said even though you could tell that she was not completely convinced by Mariah's lie. "Well I'm going t-" Mariam was dragged off somewhere by her roomate.

* * *

Later on that day...

Rei had just returned to his dorm sfter spending some time with Tyson and the gang (minus Max). He opened the door to find Max with nothing on but a towel wrapped round his waist. He was still wet from his shower.

"You're not going out dressed like that tonight, are you?" Rei joked

"Course not." Laughed Max. "I've just had a shower."

"Really? I couldn't tell." Rei said sarcastically.

"And you're suppose to be smart?"

"Yes. So I'm going to get prepared in time for the dance."

"You're such a women." Max insulted, "You start so early... like a girl."

"What are you going to do then? You're the one who's almost ready." Rei pointed out.

"True. But I'm going to take a nap first."

* * *

Saturday evening...

"I feel so sticky." Mariam said as she slumped down onto the spongy sofa and started to admire her nails. "I can't believe you made me do all that unnecessary running."

Mariam and Mariah had just returned to their dorm after Mariam was dragged along to the local beauty salon to get her nails done. Mariam was right, the school was at the top of the town where as the beauty salon is located at the bottom of the town.

"Beauty comes at a price." Explained Mariah in a simple terms. "Now go take a shower." She commanded while trying to make Mariam head towards the bathroom.

"Why are you urging me to go shower?" Mariam asked suspiciously. "I don't even have a clean set of clothes to change into."

"Oh. Don't worry about that, I'll get you your white capice shorts, okay?" Mariah offered.

"Okay"

Mariah let out a sigh of relief and just at that moment, Mariam turned round. 'BUSTED!' Mariah thought.

"Don't forget my towel." She reminded her before she continued forward.

Mariah mouthed the word 'okay' to her and stuck up her last three digits before she bolted towards her dorm and leaned against the shut door. "That was close." She said to herself before she retrieved the white Shanghai styled dress and matching white heels from the beige coloured wodrobe that she 'admired her pink dress' from.

Mariam came out of the shower and wrapped the towel round her. She stared at the dress and shoes. "Mariah. You. Are. So. Dead."

* * *

Anyway, that was chapter 3 and I have chapter 4 written up (just not typed). But I thought up of another story plan last night while I was trying to sleep so I think I'll try to write something from that idea...

Now that this story is over, review? :)


	5. Chapter 4: Your Image

**All it took was Eye Contact**

I have too much spare time on my little hands. But if you want to kill some time then I suggest doing some writing- I really need something to read!

Disclaimer: You know the usual, but I'll say it: I don't own beyblade...

**Chapter 4: Your Image.**

The dance had started and most of the students were there having a good time.

Mariah couldn't get Mariam to leave their dorm until she phoned Rei (who was suppose to wake Max up) to drag her out. Mariam wearing a dress was a sight for everyone to see.

When they arrived at the hall ,which was decorated with balloons hanging on the one side of the wall that wasn't made of glass and the ceiling, Rei and Mariah left Mariam on her own. They're mission was to get her here: the pair of them would've let her go if she wanted to leave.

Mariam watched her two friends dance on the dancefloor for a while until she remembered where she was and more importantly, what she was wearing. She headed towards the door while looking over her shoulder to make sure Rei and Mariah didn't see her flee the place, but before she even made it half way towards the door, she walked into someone. She didn't expect this person to be here. "Joseph?" she asked.

"Hey sis." He greeted in a weird tone. "What are you doing here?"

Mariam sent her younger brother a look.

"I asked you first." her brother stated but he ended up answering her look first. "I was... forced." He answered, looking ashamed. "Now you answer me."

"Same reason." she answered her brother.

"You forced?" Joseph didn't completely believe her. "That's kinda dampened your image."

Mariam sent her brother another look. Her looks were silent yet lethal- the way she liked them.

"Okay, no image but..." He looked around them "You have to agree that to-" He looked around them again.

"-night will never make it to Ozuma, Dunga and _her_." They both said before a hand reached Joseph's wrist. He turned round and Mariam looked over. They were looking at the same person but they didn't exactly have the same reaction: Mariam looked suprised to see who the owner of the hand was where as her brother looked mortified.

"Ming ming." Joseph said, trying not to show fear in his voice. He looked at his sister, "Help me!" Joseph whispered to her.

Mariam rushed herself to think of an excuse. "Who's your friend?" Mariam stalled.

"Sis, this is Ming ming, a classmate." He answered while sending her looks to rush her thinking.

"Well, Ming ming, it's five minutes until Joseph's curfew so you should probably walk him to his dorm." Mariam lied.

Her brother gave her a look that said: 'Curfew? You had to say that?'

"Tonight's special, I'll walk him back in an hour." Ming ming said before she dragged Joseph onto the dancefloor.

Joseph mouthed the words: 'No one must know about this.' to Mariam, who agreed by nodding before she started to head for the door again.

'Poor Joseph.' she thought while she continued to head for the door. She walked into someone again. Worse, she wasn't related to this person but she knew him and she was positive that he knew her. Just her luck, only she could make her timing so imperfect as to bump into another person and have another (what she considered to be) time consuming conversation. 'This isn't happening.' she wished

"Hey Mariam," Greeted Max while scanning her appearance. "You look different, but in a good way."

"Thanks." Mariam said to him cooly even though the thoughts in her head were all really panicky. "Not bad yourself." She complimented, " Anyway I'm going now so b-"

"Wait!" Interrupted Max. His natural instinct to stop her from leaving was to grab her wrist.

"Why?"

"Why?" Max repeated. "Because... I just got here and... I could probably use some company." He made up as he dragged her back into the hall.

'Are you kidding me?' thought Mariam. 'The dress' slits are so high. I'm practically flashing my but off.' What Mariam thought was only partly true because the two slits ended three quarters of the way up her upper thigh. This meant that one fall and it would be bye bye dignity.

"So..." Max started, "I like what they've done to this place." Max tried to break the silence that had somehow built up between them.

"Yeah. It is quite nice." Mariam agreed as she looked at the table of food and (non-alcoholic) drinks behind them, but everyone knew that the punch would spiked some point in the evening. The area that they stood on was slightly platformed from the dancefloor. Between the balloons on the ceiling were some fluorescent lighting that was located mainly above the most populated area: the dancefloor.

Their conversation was killed in a matter of seconds, by none other than silence.

"Why don't we go take a seat over there." Max suggested as he gestured towards the seats at the side opposite the entrance. The akwardness of failed conversation was mocking him: he knew he had to try again.

Mariam looked over to where he was indicating. "Sure." She replied as she linked her arm through the loop that Max made with his. She couldn't help but smile at how close they were. Mariam wasn't going to let her smile show, although she had to laugh out loud when she unkowingly tried to sit on the same seat as him.

Neither one of them realised it until their backsides gently slammed against each other. "Sorry." They laughed as they stood up before they both sat down again in separate seats.

Mariam forgot about how high the slits on both sides of the dress were and that a lot of her thigh would exposed. She quickly stood up again. "I think I'll stand." she said while trying to close up the slits.

"I'll stand with you," Max stood up. "It wouldn't be very courteous of me to sit while you stand."

Meanwhile...

Rei and Mariah were on the dancefloor, slow dancing like all the other couples around them. She had her arms round his neck and he had his round her slim waist. They swayed along to the music as they spied on their friends. Mariah was facing Diachi's direction while Rei faced Tyson's and to his suprise, he wasn't hogging all the food, Diachi was. But it was evident that Tyson may have drank too much of the punch. Who ever spiked the punch made their move early.

Mariah looked towards the right of Diachi and the long (and nearly empty) snack table. She noticed Mariam and Max sitting together but neither one of their lips were moving. "Look over there." Mariah commanded quietly into Rei's ear, but it was not quite a whisper.

Rei carefully swayed their bodies to the side and traced Mariah's stare. "Don't look over there," Rei commanded into her ear in the same way as how she did, "Look who Tyson is spending his time with."

Mariah broke away from the swaying position to stare at Tyson. "Where?"

Rei grabbed her hand and pulled her back in. Now they were the ones being stared at. "That was _so_ subtle." Rei laughed sarcastically.

"How else was I suppose to see behind me?" Mariah asked a little bit angrily. "Plus I can't even see him."

Rei shook his head. "Let's try to blend in a bit more this time." Rei Suggested. They swayed along to the music before Rei let out an order: "Now dip. Do you see Tyson with a certain brunette." He then pulled her back up.

"Oh... I see what you mean." she said before she removed her gaze from her boyfriend. "Where did Max and Mariam go?"

While Mariah and Rei were spying...

"You know what," Mariam suddenly started to say. She snapped Max's attetion away from the tauntung silence that was still there. "I think I'll go do that science homework that I believe you have as well."

"It's not due until who knows when!" Max exclaimed. "But should I walk you back to your dorm?" he asked, uncertain of what he should do to his friend. Usually when he goes to a dance, he'd go as a couple with Emily and he was pretty much obliged to walk her home or to wherever she was staying.

"Well, I thought you would probably like to know that 'who knows when' is actually in less than forty eight hours time," Mariam confirmed to him. She earned a slightly suprised look from Max. "And the last question is as essay, so if you want to hand it in on time you should go do it." Mariam finished as she headed towards the door.

* * *

"It's awfully quite tonight." Stated Ozuma. He was sitting on a branch of a tree with his back leaning against the trunk. The tree was near the sandwich cafe, the one that Mariam, Dunga, Joseph and himself would sit and have a banter on almost every day. He looked down to see what Dunga was doing- nothing. Ozuma knew what Dunga was thinking. "I know," he suddenly said. "It's unlike Mariam and Joseph to not be here while a school event is on."

"Yeah, but it's nice to get a break from Mariam's insults." Dunga pointed out. "But it seems too quiet now. They're usually the ones who start to dry my patience and I-"

Ozuma hushed him and pointed at two people that were leaving the dance.

Mariam and Max were outside in the cool air. They started to slowly walk towards the large, white dormetry building when Mariam suddenly stopped. This caused Max (who was walking a bit behind Mariam with his head down) to walk into her. He noticed that Mariam appeared to be touching her back, but why?

"What are you doing?" Max asked curiously. To him, it looked like she was trying to feel herself up.

Mariam stopped what she was doing. "I can't get into my dorm." she told him. "This dress doesn't have pockets for my room key or my beyblade."

Max looked upwards towards the fairly dark sky for a solution to Mariam's dilemma. He thought of something but it probably wouldn't help, but it was better than nothing. "Why don't we go along to the sandwich cafe for like a drink or something." Max suggested. They weren't too far away from the cafe at the moment- they were probably closer to the cafe than their dorm.

"I geuss we could kill more time there than here."

* * *

"Answer me already!" Shouted a brunette at a barely conscious Tyson for like the billionth time tonight.

"The elegant and sophisticated type." He finally answered.

The brunette nodded, "Interesting." She noted to herself.

Mariam and Max sat in silence in the cafe- which had no other customers- with their beverages: an espresso for Mariam and a hot chocolate for Max.

"Sooo..." Max stretched the monosyllabic word, "I noticed that you were living up to your rep. in P.E." Here he goes again, attepting to start another conversation that hopefully won't be killed off so easily.

"Yeah and you don't always run so slowly do you?" Joked Mariam. Her answer didn't kill the conversation this time.

"No. I usually run faster than that," Max answered her. "I had a rough night on Monday so I felt really tired on the next morning." He tried to explain.

"Good, 'cause I really do expect some competition from a sport scientist's son." Mariam admitted, which suprised Max. "And I know what your 'rough night' was," Mariam made inverted comma marks in the air when she quoted him on 'rough night'. "It's because of your girlfriend."

Max almost spat out that sip of hot chocolate that he was drinking. "But how did you know?" Max asked. Calling how he reacted shocked would've been an understatement.

"Same reason as to why I know Tyson's secret." Mariam said.

"And you find out by..." Max was hoping that he could trick Mariam into telling him the answer.

All Mariam did was tap the side of her nose.

"Why do you always do that?" Asked Max out of curiosity. "Is that like... I dunno... part of your image?" Max wondered. Image wasn't exactly the word he was looking for but he settled with that word anyway.

Mariam didn't answer him because she was too busy hiding under the table from two people: Ozuma and Dunga.

* * *

I wasn't too sure about the wording in some of the sentences so I'm sorry if they sound weird...

If you're wonder why there's that short scene with Tyson and the brunette then stop. I actually did that bit for a reason (for once). I'll hopefully get to spill the secret soon.


	6. Chapter 5: Are you jealous?

**All it took was Eye Contact**

I finally typed it up and somehow, I still haven't gotten to the secret. Oh well, I geuss that's why I don't consider this to be a short story.

Discaimer: Beylade is one thing and owning it is another- I don't own it...

* * *

**Chapter 5: The after Dance**

The next day, Mariah woke up in her dorm like any other day except that it wasn't like usual. She wasn't wearing her cute white pyjamas with little kittens on them, nor was she sandwiched between her spongy matress and the nice, soft duvet that was meant to be used for a double bed rather than her single bed, she was lying on the sofa in the room with her duvet replaced with Rei. Mariah managed to pull out one of her hands tp prod Rei's cheek until he woke up.

"What are you doing here?" She asked him sweetly. Mariah was always in a good mood after a good night's worth of sleep, but if she didn't get that then look out everyone...

"Well. You see, I came here after I went to my room and well..." He paused for a moment as he sat up and freed Mariah from under him, "Go get dressed first." He urged her, "Then I'll show you why I'm here."

"Okay." Agreed Mariah.

Rei opened his room door quietly, in hope that it wouldn't change the way things were on the other side.

Mariah had a rough idea of what to expect, but they were wrong. On the other side of the door was once again, a wet, half-naked Max. Mariah immediately covered her eyes and looked the other way.

"Maybe I should've showered earlier..." Was Max's only response to Mariah's reaction.

A few minutes later, Max came out of the shower facility and back into his dorm dressed a pair of jeans and a t-shirt with some sort of green design in the center. Mariah and Rei were waiting for him to return so they could hear about what happened between him and Mariam last night. To Max's suprise, Mariah was actually waiting patiently for him to change.

"So." Mariah started, "What did you want to show me Rei?" She asked in a way that was so fake, she and Rei had something planned out.

"Well it's not the same seeing as Max's co-star has left." Rei was definitely up to something.

"What are you two trying to say?" Max asked.

Rei stood, "How are things between you and Mariam?" he asked him.

"We're just friends." was all Max said.

"Really?" Rei asked, "Do friends share kisses that last more than ten seconds?"

For a moment Max looked really confused until he realised what he _really_ saw, "It's not what you think."

*FLASHBACK*

"Mariam, what are you doing under the table." Max asked.

They were at the sandwich cafe after they left the dance early. Outside the front door of the cafe was Ozuma and Dunga, Mariam's usual group that she always spent time with minus Joseph, though.

"Max we need to leave." Mariam said as she signaled towards the back door. "Hurry, this is a serious matter. We can't risk staying here for any longer."

"Okay, but where to?" Max asked as he followed Mariam out of the cafe, "And why is it a risk to stay?"

"I'll explain later." she she answered him quickly. She felt that she didn't have time to explain the situation in depth. "Take me to your dorm."

At Max's dorm...

Mariam sat on the sofa and was surfing the web using Max's laptop while he was getting a orange juice for himself and a blackcurrent juice for Mariam.

He handed her the glass of blackcurrent juice, "Can you answer my questions now?" Max asked her while sat down on the couch beside her.

"I can't risk letting Dunga and Ozuma seeing me like this." She answered him as she looked at the dress that was on her body. "Dunga will definitely tease me about it for the rest of my life and Ozuma... well he probably won't be so mean but he will probably... comment on it." She paused a few times to consider her words carefully. "He is a bit more sensitive than Dunga so he would probably only comment and not criticise."

Max felt a bit strange when Mariam went on to talk about Dunga and Ozuma, but mainly Ozuma. He started to think to himself: what was her relationship with him like? Are they just friends, close friends or what? Was he jealous?

Mariam murmered something to herself.

Max looked at her confused, "You say something?" to him it sounded as if she said something like: 'Her again? Why won't she leave me alone?'

"Nothing." she smiled at him, "I was just checking my email." She quickly wrote a reply to the email before she deleted it. "That should do." she logged off and handed the laptop back to Max, "Here you go." Mariam let go of the laptop before Max had a firm grip on it so it fell and knocked over her cup of juice.

"That didn't just happen." Max said calmly, a little too calm. He reached for the box of tissues that was sitting on the table in front of them and tried to soak up the liquid, "Rei's gonna freak when he sees this stain!"

Mariam grabbed a tissue and tried to help. Their bodies turned to face each others so that they could focus on the stain better and their heads were turned inwards too. Their bodies were really close together...

*END FLASHBACK*

"That must've been what you saw." Max explained even though Rei wasn't listening anymore.

Rei was inspecting the couch and has been since Max reached the part about them dropping the laptop, "You stained the couch!" Rei yelled.

Max started to slowly head towards the door, in hope that Rei wouldn't notice his subtle escape. He tried to turn the knob quietly.

Mariah stood up, "Where's Mariam now?" Mariah asked. Mariah should've been fearing for her life rather than Max; Mariah was going to get it from Mariam when they will next encounter, most likely in the dorm, where there will be no one there to witness... things.

"She did say that she was going to return to her dorm. She left a while before you two came here, I would've thought that you would run into her on the way." Max answered as he came further back into the room.

"Our dorm?" Mariah asked and earned a nod from Max, "Oh God. She can't get in." Mariah placed her hands over her mouth.

"Well go open the door for her." Max said, "It's such a simple solution."

"For you maybe but she's been locked out all night and I made her wear a dress." Mariah pointed out, "I don't think she's going to be too thrilled about that!"

"Then we'll go with you." Rei offered as he stood up and backed away from the couch.

Mariam took the long way back to her dorm, the path that less students use due to the long, twisty, narrow corridors. This was probably why it took her so long to return to her own dorm. But it shouldn't have taken her _that_ long...

On her way to her room, Mariam walked into one of the people that she wanted to see least: Ozuma.

'Oh dear.' thought Mariam. She was so close to her dorm as well ( actually she was right outside it).

Ozuma didn't say anything... Yet. All he did was scan her body. He had never seen her in a dress before despite being very close, in fact, he all knew that she hated wearing dresses.

Ozuma was about to let out a... comment but, someone from behind him spoke up "Mariam, I know you mu-" It was Mariah, but ran into the dorm and locked herself in there when she noticed how angry Mariam looked.

"Wise move Mariah!" Mariam shouted before she tried to open the room door, "Open the door!" Mariam shouted, but Mariah was in the locked dorm, screaming.

They attracted a lot of attention from by- standers and people from inside neighbouring dorms.

"They're causing a rucus! What now?" Rei questioned while trying to think of a way to save his girlfriend and the door.

Ozuma did what Dunga always does to annoy her, that was lifting her up. He carried Mariam away from the door and out of the corridor.

Max couldn't help but notice the way he did that- it looked so easy for him to get close to her. He couldn't help but wonder about the connection between those two. Were they a couple? He hadn't heard anything about Mariam being in a relationship.

Anyway, Rei went inside the dorm to check on Mariah and Max followed him. It was the first time that Max had been in their dorm. He thought it was a lot brighter than his dorm which had a lot of white and various shades of blue- it always reminded him of a fridge-, whereas the girls dorm had a combination of white and lilac, just like Emily's room. He noticed a few photo frames above Mariam's bed. There was about five pictures there: the first one was of Mariam and Joseph sitting next to each other with their arms round each others; the next one along was a photo of Mariam sitting on the swings at a place that looked a lot like the local park; the third photo included Dunga and herself, they were having a water balloon fight; the forth and fifth one really made him feel curious. In the last pictures, Mariam was with Ozuma. In the fourth picture, she sat back to back with him, they looked so close, just like the last one, she had her legs over Ozuma's while she half sat on his lap.

"Maaaaaxxx." Rei and Mariah called. It snapped him right back into reality; away from his thoughts.

"Yeah." He turned round to face them.

"Go check if Ozuma has managed to calm Mariam down." Rei commanded. Max nodded and left.

Max stepped outside the dormetry building and did a quick scan for the blunette and her 'friend'. He found them and Mariam did not look happy with Ozuma.

"Why did you lift me up!" Mariam shouted at him, "You know that I hate being lifted!" She was standing by the big, round fountain with Ozuma in front of her.

Apparently, Ozuma wasn't the type of guy to just stand there and let a person- male or female- shout at him without doing it back.

"Well, you should learn to control your temper." He retorted, "You were like this when we-" Ozuma stopped himself from saying anymore after he noticed Max approaching them.

"Am I interrupting?" Max asked before he reached them.

Mariam nodded, "No Max."

"Go make up with your roomate." Ozuma said rather than ordering her to. He said in a way that was a lot calmer than a few seconds ago, "See you at the usual spot later." With that, he ruffled her hair and walked away.

"Don't tell Dunga and _her _about this, okay?"

Ozuma tried to hold in his laughter, "He already knows."

"Oh God." she sighed.

He ruffled her hair again and actually walked away this time.

"How many times do I need to say it: stop doing that!" She yelled to Ozuma, but at least she was smiling. She then turned to Max, "Let's go and sort things out with Mariah."

* * *

Later on that evening...

Hilary sighed. It wasn't like her to be so down, everyone noticed it.

"What's wrong with you?" Asked Diachi, while chewing his sandwich with his mouth wide open. He dropping food all over the table.

Hilary, Diachi, Rei, Mariah and Kenny were all at the sandwich cafe again. Even though Mariah and Mariam had made up, she didn't come with them to the cafe for dinner.

Hilary answered Diachi's question with another sigh.

"Yeah Hilary, what's up." Rei asked her.

"You're a guy. What do they mean when they say they like a 'sophisticated and elegant' looking girl." She asked with her head rested against the hard cold surface of the table.

"Hey, wait a minute. What's that supposed to mean?" Diachi demanded, "Are you trying to say to I'm not a guy?"

Everyone ignored Diachi. Poor boy, the one time he actually used his brain.

"You're smart. I'm sure you know what that means." Rei answered.

"But, if you're looking for an example, I have a plan..." Mariah was starting to come up with another plan.

"Mariah, don't bother this person anymore." Rei tried to put a stop to her latest 'scheme', "I really don't want you to get hurt, like today."

"I'll be fine." Mariah tried to convince him, "Okay Hilary, listen up."

* * *

The following Tuesday morning- P.E, with everyone's least favourite teacher, Coach Pilon.

Like last time, it didn't take Mariam long before she was ahead of everyone, but unlike last week, Tyson didn't make it to the track (no suprise even though it didn't happen last week) and Max, like he said, did run faster. Even Hilary did too, it looked like she was trying to catch up with Mariam...

What was also like last time was that Mariam had finished way before everyone else and was sitting on the bleachers. Max instead of being second last to finish, was second to finish this time.

"You weren't kidding when you said that you don't usually run so slowly." Mariam laughed as Max came and sat down beside her.

"What did you expect, I did get enough sleep last night," Max said, "And I'm gonna beat you next time."

"As if." Mariam loved putting people down when it came to running; she was good and she knew it.

* * *

Mariam was ready to leave the girls changing room when Hilary finally got a chance to speak to her.

"Mariam, wait!" Hilary shouted. She rushed her shower today so that she could speak to Mariam.

"Yeah?" Mariam said as she stopped walking. She started to walk again when Hilary caught up with her.

"Can you do me a favour?"

"I'm not liking where this is going." Mariam said, honestly.

"It's just a small one." Hilary insisted. Mariam looked at her as if provoking her to go on. "I... uh... need your help."

"We've already established that." Mariam half smiled.

"Right," Hilary said, "What I'm trying to say is..." she took a deep breathe, "Can you come and help out on Friday with the decoration for our school's visitors that are coming this weekend? We have to finish our big banner."

Mariam remained silent for a moment, "I can't," she replied, "I'm meeting up with Ozuma, Dunga and Joseph and we're all going to-"

"Please. For me?" Hilary interrupted, "Your friends can come too, after all we do need more people to come help if we want it done on time."

"I don't think they're the type to come help out, in fact help anyone in any way." Mariam looked at Hilary. Big mistake- she was giving Mariam the puppy eyes, the one thing that Mariam didn't have a defense against, "Fine. I'll see what I can do."

Later on that day, when Hilary was alone, she finally got a chance to think about how stupid she must've looked to Mariam. What she said wasn't really what she was intending to ask, they already had more than enough people working on the banner. She wanted to find out her secret to why everyone sees her as such a poised, confident character. But she figured that all this would get her what she wanted then she didn't mind.

* * *

Friday after school...

Mariam met up with Hilary to finish the **BIG **banner. Hilary wasn't kidding when she said big.

"Hey Hilary," Mariam greeted, "I'm here like I said I would be."

Hilary aknowledged her by nodding her head, "Good, we have a lot of work to do." She looked behind Mariam, "Where's your friends?"

"They'll be here after they buy me an ice-latte." Mariam answered, "What should I do?"

"Find the paint that matches that colour,"she pointed to the half-coloured letter on the banner, "and go paint it." Hilary commanded and off Mariam went.

"Red... red... red." Mariam repeated to herself until she found it. Another hand reached out for the tub of red paint, she looked up.

It was Hilary. She gave the tub of paint to Mariam, "Hurry. We're working against time here."

Nearby the banner construction site, at the outdoor lunch tables sat Max, Tyson, Diachi, Kenny, Rei and Mariah. It was a very sunny day and they didn't want to bother with anything else so they all sat and watched the students make the banner.

They could see Mariam and Hilary from where they were sitting. Mariam was wearing a pair of denim shorts and a white tank top and Hilary was wearing a white skirt with a peach coloured tank top. Mathilda was there too. They didn't notice her there until Miguel came up to them and started to talk.

The seven of them all lounged about in the heat.

When Mariam had made it back to the banner, she felt a pair of hands shove her from behind, causing her to almost spill the paint.

She tried to grab on to something, that something being the person standing closest to her.

Luckily that person saw this coming and saved her from falling into wet paint.

"Thanks, Ozuma." Mariam knew who shoved her and faced the culprit, "Come on Dunga, even a monkey could've pulled that one off." There goes more affection.

"What did you say?" Dunga asked as he lifted and threw the first object that he felt, regardless of what it was. It just so happened to be her ice-latte.

"You did not just do that!" Mariam said to him in a way that was threatening.

Ozuma and Joseph saw what was coming and tried to stop it. Ozuma lifted Mariam to another place, away from the banner and Joseph dragged Dunga away Mariam so he couldn't throw anything else at her.

Hilary saw it all, 'Maybe she's not the best example of how to be elegant and sophisticated.' Hilary thought and looked at the bluenette, 'Too bad a temper.' She shook her head and continued with her work.

Max and the others were watching the mini fight between Mariam and Dunga.

It's not been a good week for Mariam, first of all Mariah and now with Dunga, but then again it was normal for Mariam to argue on a daily basis with Dunga.

"Did you guys see that!" Max was shocked at what Dunga had done, so were the others.

"Oh my God!" Mariah exclaimed, "What a waste of a drink!"

It wasn't what he had meant, he was thinking along the lines of: 'Why does he always pick her up like that?'

Later on...

"Okay guys!" Hilary said proud and enthusiastically, "Lets hang the banner up."

Mathilda raised her hand, "We don't have a ladder." She pointed out.

Just then Mariah and the gang came over.

"Hilary, are you done yet?" Whined a bored Mariah.

"Genius over there forgot a ladder." Mariam said, using her thumb to point at Hilary.

"What are you going to do now?" Asked Max.

"Hang the banner without a ladder." Ozuma suggested. He had taken his top off some point during the day, causing a lot of girls to suddenly want to help.

"You're not going to make me us do that again." Mariam wasn't liking where this was going.

Everyone else except for Mariam, Ozuma and Joseph knew what the plan was.

"What are we going to do?" asked Hilary

"Simple. Get Mariam and Joseph to climb on me and Dunga's shoulders." Ozuma explained, Mariam groaned.

"Like the ice-cream van time?" Asked Dunga.

"Yes, but I am not going to climb onto Dunga's shoulders," Mariam refused with reason, "He'll drop me on purpose."

"Fine. Joseph can climb on Dunga's shoulder and you can climb on mine."

"Doesn't that bring back memories." Mariam commented in a bad way, which once again got Max thinking.

"Just do it." He ordered as he knelt down so that she could stand on his shoulder.

It was easy to see that a lot of the other girls envied Mariam for being close friends with Ozuma, who was considered to be a 'fit' guy at school along with Kai, Tala, Kane and a few other people.

"You better not drop me or I'll do what I did last time." She threatened.

"Ouch," Ozuma said to her, "Point taken."

They spent like the next fifteen minutes or so trying to get the banner leve and hanging securely against the brick wall while Max once again tried to figure out the relationship between Ozuma and Mariam. Whatever their relationship was, it sure made Mariam happy...

* * *

Early next morning...

Max slowly sat up on his bed after some loud noises woke him up. The loud noises were caused by Rei who was on the phone and rummaging around in the wordrobe straight afterwards.

"Why are you up so early?" Max asked him drowsily. He looked at the clock, it was barely seven and Rei was up and about, 'What a way to spend his Saturday.' Max thought.

"He's here!" Rei was really excited about someone.

Max gave him a confused look that worked even better than usual seeing as he was only half awake.

"I've gotta go find him!" and with that, Rei dashed out of the room.

* * *

I couldn't remember why I put the short Tyson /Hilary scene in (from the last chapter) so sorry about that.

But the next chapter should get interesting... I have it planned out in my head.


	7. Chapter 6: Exchange Them Back Please!

**All it took was Eye Contact**

Yay! Chapter 6! :) I had a lot of fun writing this chapter but to be honest, there's not that much to it

**Chapter 6: Exchange Them Back Please!**

It was a bright Saturday morning when Mariam was heading towards the sandwich cafe. She noticed that most of it's customers were leaving as if there was someone waving an extremely sharp butcher's knife around trying to decapitate their heads or something like that but worst of all, they were all runing directly towards her- even her friends.

Everyone who left the sandwich shop was now trying to hide themselves behind Mariam, who didn't know what was happening. They all looked a bit shaken up.

"What on Earth is going on?" Mariam demanded.

"I d-d-don't think th-th-they're from Earth." Kenny stuttered as he indicated the four unusual people coming towards them.

Max, Tyson, Rei, Mariah, Hilary, Diachi, Kenny and even Mathilda were all poining towards the strangers. The rest of the crowd was standing miles behind them.

Mariam looked a bit startled, "You weren't kidding when you said that." Mariam said to them while looking at the strange people.

The four strangers stopped when they reached them. Everyone except for Mariam (who was trying not to laugh) shuffled back a little bit with fear.

They looked down at Mariam, suprised that she wasn't scared, "Are you not even a tiny bit scared?" They asked her.

"Should I be?" She asked them.

Everyone behind started to come forward again. They were suprised at how brave Mariam was.

They looked taken aback, "Are you're thoughts not related to fear in anyway?" One of them asked her.

"Well, I'm thinking who or what on Earth or whatever planet are you from are you meant to be?" Mariam answered them honestly.

"And I was thinking that it's a bit early to celebrate Halloween." Joseph decided that it would be fun to mess with their head.

Mariam greeted her brother with a smile.

"It's Halloween everyday at where we come from." They spoke proudly.

"I see, so you're Norwegian." Joseph confirmed, everyone looked at them with confused expressions.

Mariam nodded, "That would make sense," Maraim agreed, "You do have shorter days there don't you?"

"We're not from Norway!" they shouted at Mariam and Joseph.

"Rei," whispered Max from behind the commotion, "Maybe you should tell them." Max suggested

"No way!" Tyson disagreed in a loud whisper, "This is getting entertaining." He pointed to the bunch of students who were no longer scared.

"Then who are you and where are you from." Mariam asked.

They let out an evil laugh, "We are-"

"Not from this centuary or the previous one." Ozuma finished for them.

"Are the old man from down the road?" Dunga asked, earning a nod from Mariam as if she was saying 'he does look like him, doesn't he?'

"NowearetheDarkBladers!" They said very quickly, so fast that it was almost inaudible but the others did manage to catch what they it.

"Point out the obvious then, why don't you?" For a moment, Dunga sounded like he genuinely knew who those people were.

"It is?" everyone asked, suprised.

"Yeah." Dunga confirmed, "Look at them, they're so dull, if they're not the Dark Bladers, what are they gonna call themselves, the Light Bladers?" Many people had to laugh at that one.

"We are the European exchange students."

"They found out anyway." Tyson whispered to Max.

Hilary decided to join their conversation, "I'm kinda afraid to meet my exchange student."

Tyson thought that it would be funny to scare Hilary, "_I'm gonna suck your blood_." he whispered in that voice that Dracula would have on t.v. All he got from Hilary was a slap across the arm.

"Students?" Joseph laughed, "You look like Dracula and he's like a billion years old."

"No, I am Sanguinex and I'm only a few hundred years old." he introduced, "I am a direct descendant of Count Dracula." He pointed at Tyson, "By the way kid, if you do that again, I really will suck your blood."

Tyson nodded, "Yes sir."

"He got the message loud and clear." Hilary smirked.

"Funny," Mariam said in a kind of evil way, "Shouldn't you be afraid of that object over there called the sun?" She pointed up towards the sun, knowing that their natural instinct was to look at where she was pointing.

The four members of the Dark Bladers immediatly raised their hands up to sheild themselves from the UV rays, "Whereisthenearestdarkroom?" Asked Sanguinex in the same inaudible way as before.

"Just go through those gates over there," Joseph pointed towards the entrance of the campus, "And take the bus. It should take you to the airport and you can live unhappily ever after in Norway."

The Dark Bladers ignored Joseph's instructions and ran towards the science building.

The crowd started to disperse after the Halloween fans disappeared.

"That was almost as fun as bickering with Dunga." Mariam admitted.

"You didn't tell me about your courageous side." Mariah said when the surroundings was all quiet again, like how it was before their strange encounter.

"It's not courage." Mariam said, "It's a memory."

"Of the old man down the road?" Ozuma asked her rhetorically, Mariam nooded and let out a laugh.

This only made Max even more curious about Mariam and Ozuma's past and present relationship and of the man down the road.

* * *

Monday first period...

Rei, Max, Mariam and Mariah were all called to the teachers desk. Apparently he was concerned about Mariah and Mariam failing all the expiriments in science so he wanted them to switch lab partners.

"Mariah, I want you to partner with Max and Rei you're with Mariam." The teacher announced.

"Why can't I partner with Rei." Mariah whined as she looked over towards her boyfriend and his exchange friend, who glared at her, "Never mind." Mariah looked away from Sanguinex.

"Okay then, off to work." Mr Sanders said.

"You know Mariah, he's probably only doing this to protect the remaining hair on his head." Max was being brutally honest with her and she wasn't liking it.

"Well then." Mariah huffed, flicked her hair and walked back to her seat.

"Max, please watch you're tongue around her." Rei warned, "You're my friend so I don't want to see you get hurt."

"Same, I don't want to see you get hurt either." Max returned while looking at Sanguinex, "But then again, Mariam's your lab partner now so you should be safe."

"Actually," Mariam started, "He's a really cool guy if you minus the fear of sunlight, his queer accent, the blunt fangs..."

Towards the end of first period...

"His bad breathe, dirty nails, weird dre-"

"ENOUGH ALREADY!" Sanguinex finally heard enough of Mariam's list of things that were wrong with him and put a stop to it.

"Hey, I know the truth hurts," Mariam nodded in comprehension as she patted his shoulder, "Back to work Drac junior."

"I told you already," He muttered, "The name's Sanguinex."

"What about it?" Mariam asked.

Max turned back to his and Mariah's experiment after being side tracked by all the commotion. As soon as he turned to the experiment, he saw Mariah holding a beaker of clear fluid and was about to mix it with a beaker of white powder, "Mariah stop!" he yelled causing the majority of the class to duck and cover.

"What!" She yelled back, she slammed the empty beaker onto the table and their experiment started to sizzle like all over the work surface.

Too late.

* * *

Hilary straightened up when she heard footsteps round the corner, "I hope I look okay." She said to herself. Hilary had this habit of talking to herself whenever she was nervous.

"You look perfect." Said a voice, "You must be Hilary."

Hilary looked up to see a blond boy staring at her, "You are...?"

"This is Enrique," Principal Dickenson introduced, "Your exchange partner."

"Enrique from Italy?" Hilary suddenly realised that her exchange student was nothing like Rei's: her exchange student was hot! She couldn't stop staring at him, it was such a shock to her that Enrique wasn't at all revolting like how she imagined him to be after meeting Sanguinex and the rest of the Dark Bladers.

Enrique suddenly hugged Hilary, who was startled at first before she happily hugged him back, but he pulled away quickly before giving her a quick, brief kiss on both cheeks.

Hilary looked at him with her eyes which were wide open, clearly even more startled than when he hugged her.

Enrique noticed her blush as did the principal, "It's traditional Italian custom..." Enrque said, in a perfect English even though his Italian accent was still there.

"So I've heard." Hilary said to him, trying not to speak her mind, "And thank you principal Dickenson." Hilary was trying very hard to not lose her cool.

Meanwhile...around the corridor...

"Ewww that's gross!" said a certain someone to themself quite loudly but fortunatly, it wasn't loud enough to draw Hilary's attention.

* * *

"I'm leaving, see-" Mariah grabbed Mariam's arm.

"Don't go." Mariah pleaded, "We don't want to be left alone with him" She whispered and pointed to Sanguinex and his friend Cenotaph, who was Kane's exchange student.

Rei and the others (Tyson, Kenny, Max, Diachi, Kane and even Mathilda) looked up at her, trying to give her the puppy dog eyes.

The only eyes she noticed were Max's, they were so bright and mesmerizing, "Fine." She said reluctantly even though she didn't really mind staying here.

Diachi suddenly perked up, "I have a bit of gossip for ya." He said to them.

"You gossiping is already gossip within itself." Mariah stated, which kind of threw everyone off gaurd. It sounded quite technical for the Mariah they all knew.

Everyone stared at her; she actually had a point for once.

"I saw some guy kiss Hilary." Diachi said, "Twice!" Everyone gasped when they heard this except for Mariah.

Underneath the table, Tyson clenched his fists.

"Was the guy cute?" Mariah asked, she was back to her naive self again.

Rei cleared his throat as if to say: 'Why are you aking? You already have a boyfriend.'

Mariah understood his hint and nudged Mathilda, who was sitting to the right of her.

Mathilda nodded, "Was the guy cute?" she repeated for Mariah.

"Well, he had blonde hair and blue eyes." Diachi tried to remember more about him but he couldn't because he left the scene so quickly.

"Does that discription not fit like Max?" asked Mariah.

"NO!" shouted Mariam as she sat forward. She earned a lot of attention from the people at the table, "I bit myself again." Mariam lied and slumped down in her seat again, "Continue."

For a moment there, Max thought that Mariam was... jealous? Would she be?

"Well, I think it does." Mathilda agreed with Mariah.

"No, his hair was a bit different. His..." Diachi sat there trying to remember the word he was looking for.

"Style?" Mariam helped.

"Yeah that's the word."

"Speaking of style," Sanguinex started, "what's wrong with mine."

"And don't say what's not wrong with it." Cenotaph was trying to predict what Mariam's answer would be.

"Okay then," Mariam said, "What's right about it." she pointed towards Sanguinex, "No one in this cantuary or the last ever did or wanted to ever dress like that and you," She then pointed at Sanguinex's friend, "You're the only per-" She stopped to consider her words, "Creature I know that wears toilet paper. I know it's creative but it is also weird"

The two Dark Bladers glared at her.

"Not even the people of Norway wanted to do that." She added just to annoy them. It was a habit that she had developed over the past few days after she thought that Dunga could use a break.

Mariah looked at Mathilda, "We have to have our first school sleepover of this year soon," she said to her, "And we can continue this discussion in my dorm."

"Not again." Mariam whined, "Don't you think you're a little old for sleepovers." She asked them, in hope that they would rethink their plans.

"You can never be too old to have sleepovers!" Mariah answered her enthusiastically, "Oh my God, we can get Julia and Salima to come along too."

"Yay!" Mathilda cheered, "Hopefully they won't be too busy."

"Oh yeah, I haven't seen her since before the school ended last year." Max remembered, "How is she?"

"Always busy," Mathilda answered, "She's always rehearsing for the school shows and concerts."

"What about Salima?" Rei asked, "I haven't seen her around either."

"I didn't know you still cared about your ex." Kane said.

"He does and I think it's sweet unlike you, who angered Salima." Mariah reminded him.

"She's still mad at that?" Kane asked, "I told her that it was an accident."

"Well don't shout at me for saying this because I didn't say it first but 'when you stand there and don't turn away for more than ten seconds, it's not an accident.'" Mariah quoted, "I think I completly agree with Salima on that one."

"So you hate sleepovers." Sanguinex stated to Mariam, who simply just nodded. Sanguinex looked at his friend, "Then we know how to get you back then."

"Two flaws." Mariam simply pointed them out," One. If I don't like them then I don't go to them and two. If I ever threw one- which I won't, you wouldn't be invited anyway." her answer was harsh in a sense but to the point.

Max kind of liked how straight forward Mariam can be.

Just then two people entered the cafe, "Hi!" One of them greeted.

Everyone looked up to see who it was: Hilary and someone that they had never seen before.

"That's the guy!" Diachi said to his friends at the table.

Tyson immediatly built up a strong dislike towards this guy.

* * *

Unlike Mariam, I don't seem to be very good at getting to my point quickly... Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter and Sanich, I think I've figured out how I can incorprate Kai into the story!


	8. Chapter 7: It's Time to find the Truth

**All it took was Eye Contact**

I was pretty bored so like last week, I started to type the next chapter but I actually managed to get it done before the week was over. I was pretty suprised but I don't see this as a bad thing. In chapter 7, I'm finally spilling secrets (well kind of) but you'll have to read the next chapter to find out the actual secret! And I'd like to point out that Kai's in this chapter.

Disclaimer: I don't, do not (but I do wish I) own Beyblade.

**Chapter 7: It's Time to Find the Truth**

After Hilary had introduced her exchange friend Enrique, who kept on eyeing all the girls in the cafe even causing most of them to let out high-pitched girly squeals, the girls at their table (minus Mariam) were pretty much squeaking in girl code about how hot Enrique was. The guys were all trying to catch what they were saying, except for Tyson, who was sitting near Enrique, giving him evil glares.

Mariam was just sitting there having another (to her) friendly discussion with the Dark Bladers, who secretly felt like they were fighting a (losing) war. She eventually got bored and decided that it was time that she met up with her usual friends, "I'm out."

"Why? You finally realised how dangerous we can be?" Cenotaph asked her, victoriously.

"You? Dangerous?" Mariam asked before she fully stood up, "You're wearing the toilet paper. The only person you really scare is Lady GaGa."

"Where are you going?" Asked Mariah stopping her conversation with Hilary and Mathilda for a second.

"To find Ozuma and the others," She answered, "Like always. See you in our dorm later."

Max had finally had it. The next time he was going to be with Mariam alone, he was going to ask her A LOT of questions regarding her friendship and relationship status with specific people.

* * *

Once again in P.E class, running laps...

Mariam like always ran her five loops in less than five minutes with Max finishing second like last time, so they sat on the bleachers and waited for everyone else to finish (I don't think I'll need to say where Tyson is).

"So I see you've been trying to do what you said last week." Mariam started.

"Yeah, but there was a few things I wanted to ask you." Max turned quite serious for a moment, "I know this may seem like quite a noisy thing to ask but are you and O-"

"Hello there." Greeted a blond with an Italien accent.

"Hi." Mariam returned. She leaned over towards Max, "He's Enrique, right?" she asked him quietly.

Max nodded in response. He felt quite relieved that Enrique had intruded; maybe he wasn't ready to snoop.

* * *

Towards the end of English class...

"Mariam." Max said. She looked up, "Can I have a quick word with you at the end of class." He asked, making eye contact with him the whole time.

"Sure." Mariam responded. She tell by the way Max looked at her that he was quite serious. 'What did I do?' Mariam mentally asked herself.

The bell that signaled the end of second period sounded. Mariam was still packing her things away while Max waited beside her. There were very few students still in the class.

"What did you want to say?" Mariam asked while closing her red bag that was suppose to hang from her left shoulder to her right thigh, but instead had its handle shortened so it was now a shoulder bag.

"Can we go somewhere quiet first?" Max asked her, not ignoring her question but merely putting it on hold. Mariam nodded.

They both walked out of the classroom into the open area of the English department in silence, seeing as all the other students had exited the building.

Max took a deep breath, "Mariam," He started. He took another deep breath, "You an-." Once again, he was interrupted.

"Max." Called a voice from behind.

Max and Mariam both turned round to see Emily.

"Can I have a word with you?" she asked him sweetly. She gave Mariam a look to signify that she is not welcome in their private conversation.

"Uh," Max hesitated, "I was just about to talk with Mariam."

Mariam put her pale hand on his forearm, "We can talk later." With that said, she started to walk away.

* * *

Hilary sat close to Enrique's desk in art class but to be honest, five desks away was as close as Hilary could get to him, seeing as he has attracted so much female (and some male) attention. He had pretty much flirted with every girl on campus, clearly loving all the attention they gave him.

Hilary sighed and looked out the window at some of the younger students in P.E. class, running laps.

Tyson was sitting on the otherside of the classroom from Hilary. He was glad that she couldn't get close to Enrique. Tyson had actually paid some of the girls in his art class to take the seat closest to Enrique but he was actually ripped off: the girls would've sat as close to him as possible anyway.

Enrique suddenly got out of his seat. This managed to draw Tyson's attention but not Hilary's. She was too busy staring out the window at the all the remaining runners. Enrique put a hand on Hilary's shoulder and before he bent down a bit and whispered something into her ear, which caused Hilary to giggle.

Tyson just kept on staring at the two of them. He grip on hs pencil got tighter and tighter. The longer he looked, the closer to snapping the pencil he was and eventually a 'crack' was all they heard.

Rei looked at him, "You okay?" he asked him, trying to see what he was staring at.

Rei's question snapped Tyson out of his raging stare, "Yeah, I'm fine." he lied, calmly, a little too calmly.

"If you like her why don't you just ask her out?" Rei asked, while looking from Tyson to Hilary.

"I'm a champion," Tyson immodestly, "I don't ask girls out, they ask me!" Tyson looked at his friend, "Don't ever tell antone I said that, okay?" He made Rei, and Max (who was sitting nearby) promise.

"Are you sure you're not thinking of Kai?" Max asked, finally joining in the conversation. He earned a 'shut up' look from Tyson, which made him apologize.

"There's always more than one thing you can do." Rei stated.

"And that would be to..." Tyson tried to coax Rei into finishing the sentence.

"Get Kai's help." Tyson's plan didn't work on Rei but it worked perfectly well on Max.

* * *

By the water fountain...

Like usual, Kai stood by the water fountain in the center of the campus with a mob of girls admiring his perfect features.

Rei and Max (after a long while) talked Tyson into getting Kai's help with how to be cool and get a lot of girls to fall head over heels for you without even trying. But still, Tyson wasn't too sure about the plan and Rei and Max didn't actually believe that the plan would work, they only convinced Tyson into doing it for their own amusement, afterall, Tyson is stubborn and Kai is impatient but cool so putting it simply, how could this not be amusing.

Kai looked up when he sensed Tyson's presence. It was like he had a radar built within him to alert him when Tyson was near. He didn't say anything.

Tyson inhaled deeply, "Kai," He started. He looked back towards his two friends that nagged him into this, "I need your help." He asked quietly. He couldn't believe he was doing this.

Kai signaled all of the girls to leave them for a moment, "What do you want?" Kai demanded to know.

Tyson sighed, "I want to know how you make all those girls like you?"

Kai smirked, "I'll show you if you meet a few demands." He started to walk away.

"What exactly are your demands?" Tyson asked as he followed him. He didn't like where this was going.

"This is going to be interesting." Max commented.

"Definitely." Rei agreed before he nudged Max to follow Kai and Tyson, " I bet you Kai's going to make Tyson do his laundry for a week."

"Let's make a bet on it." Max suggested, "I bet ten dollars that Kai will make be his pack mule for a week."

The two of them then shook on it before speeding up so that they can hear Kai's demand.

The four of them walked into the dormetry building, into Kai's dorm, picked up the laundry basket and headed down to the laundry room.

"If you want my help then you have to do my laundry for week." Kai finally answered Tyson's question.

"What!" Tyson yelled, he was right though, the situation didn't go to a pleasant place, "I'm not doing your laundry for a week!" He continued to yell.

"I geuss you don't want my help then." Kai simply said.

"Didn't I say that this is going to happen." Rei said smugly as he held a hand out. Max gave him the ten dollars that they betted on reluctantly.

Tyson looked ashamed to know them, "I want your help but I don't want to touch your dirty laundry."

"You can't have it both ways, Tyson." Kai said.

"Deal then." Tyson said reluctantly after giving it some thought, "But no one must know about this."

* * *

Mariah, Mathilda, Julia, Hilary and Enique all sat at one of the outdoor tables. From where they sat, they could see Tyson and Kai being followed by a little crowd of fan girls. All the girls raised an eyebrow at the sight that was in front of them. Tyson and Kai?

"I know I haven't exactly been listening into the gossip lately but how much did I miss?" Julia asked them, in shock. She had her shoulder under Enrique's arm.

"I didn't even hear about this." Mariah said, which caused the others to gasp. Mariah was known to be one of the biggest gossips in school and she didn't even hear about this.

Behind the trail of fan girls was Rei and Max. They were both laughing hysterically.

"Rei!" Mariah yelled.

He dragged Max by the arm and headed towards the table that sat his lovely girlfriend. Once there, he let go of Max's arm and used it to hug Mariah instead, "Hey." he greeted her before giving her a quick kiss on the lips and sitting down beside her.

"What's going on over there?" Mariah asked him and pointed towards Tyson and Kai.

"Well," Rei started to laugh a little, "Funny story."

"That's going to cost ten bucks." Max placed a hand out and to his and Rei's suprise, they all put ten dollars on his palm, "Continue Rei."

"Well, Kai is doing Tyson a favor." Rei explained in short the shortened version.

"What kind of favor?" Mariah asked, while she leaned forward.

"What was so funny?" Mathilda asked as she copied Mariah's sit forward action.

"Why did we have to pay ten bucks each?" Hilary asked as she tilted her head slightly.

Max looked away from the money in his hands and moved his gaze onto them instead, "Because," Max tried to quickly think of a good excuse. Nothing so he decided tobe honest, "I lost a bet to Rei."

"Now answer me and Mathilda's question!" Mariah demanded.

Max and Rei looked at each others and they both nodded.

"Look there's superman!" Max pointed to behind the girls before he ran away.

Rei attempted to ran as well but Mariah had a tight grip on his wrist, even though she fell for the 'superman is behind you' stunt like her friends.

Once they realised that Superman wasn't there, they all glared at Rei.

"Oh my God, " Rei started after Max left, "Look at the time, it's five o'clock already, almost time for bed." He said in a bad acting voice as he got up and wandered away after removing Mariah's tight grip to look at his imaginary watch.

* * *

After running far away from the table of gossip queens, Max stopped when he spotted Mariam sitting by herself at a small round table a set of earphones plugged in and a book in her hands. He decided that he would be brave and approached her. It was about time that he found out some answers to questions that were bugging him.

Mariam pulled one of her ear plugs out and closed her book before she looked up and turned round to see who it was that was blocking her light, "Hi Max."

"Hi." Max greeted, "A bit lonely sitting out here alone isn't it?"

"Peaceful is more like the word." she chuckled, "Anyway, sit." she offered him a seat after she took her feet off the empty chair and sat up straight.

Max took her offer and sat down, "Not like you to be alone, without Mariah or Ozuma and the rest of his gang."

"I can only handle gossip in one day from Mariah and I have don't have the attention span to deal with Dunga at this very moment." She was being brutally honest about her friends to him, another thing he liked about her, or more like a quality to admire.

They sat in silence for a while.

"So what did you want to talk to me about." Mariam suddenly asked him.

Max didn't understand for a moment until he remembered, "Oh yeah, we were interrupted after English today." He didn't know where to start, "I have been wondering for a while but are you and Ozuma like, a couple or just friends?"

"Me and Ozuma? A couple?" Mariam said to him, "As if. I love him as much as I love Joseph."

Max was really confused, "You love him as much as you love someone who is almost two years younger than you?" Max asked.

"What you don't know?" Mariam asked him.

"Know what?" Max asked.

"That Joseph and I are-" just when Max was about to be answered, Ozuma happened to interrupt the conversation.

"Mariam run, fast!" he ordered without greeting her or acknowledging Max's presence.

"Why?" Mariam asked, a bit concerned to where this was heading.

"Geuss who is here." Ozuma said to her which told her it was the person she wanted to see least.

Mariam stood up, "You don't mean Ellie do you?" She asked, even though she knew the answer. Ozuma nodded, "Where's Joseph? Did you tell him?" She asked.

"He spotted her first, so he's hiding at the place." Ozuma told her before he advised her to meet up with him.

"I'll talk to you later Max." Mariam said quickly before she ran with Ozuma, leaving her book behind.

Max stood up, "So much for finding out about the truth between them..." Max commented to himself.

* * *

So I managed to give Kai a part in this chapter and he's going to be in the next chapter too! Well until next time, Bye!


	9. Chapter 8: We Know so Little

**All it took was Eye Contact**

**Chapter 8: We Know so Little**

Max stood and watched Mariam and ozuma run away before he turned to the voice that was calling him from behind. It was Emily.

"I hope you've considered it." Emily said.

Max nodded, "Yeah, I have."

"Then are we back together?" She asked, a hint of hope evident in her voice.

It took a while for Max to answer her. He looked at the direction that Mariam ran towards then back to Emily, "Yeah." he answered emotionlessly.

Emily took his hand and gave him something. A watch. His watch that was a gift from her to be exact. Emily had taken it back after they broke up, but now that they are back together and speaking to each other, she finally had the chance to return it (in a way).

Max slumped onto his bed and looked at the book in one of his hand while the other one held the watch but he shortly put it down on his bed side table before he continued to stare at the book. He picked it up after Mariam dashed off to hide from someone called Ellie, "What kind of name is that?" Max thought out loud, "It sounds like an abbreviation for the word elephant."

"What does?" Rei asked, finally making it back to their room while avoiding his girlfriend and her gossip crew.

Max sat up, "Can I ask you something?" Max asked him. His tone had sudddenly changed from his venting voice that he used just seconds ago to his serious one.

Rei noticed how serious he had suddenly became and matched it, "Yeah."

"We all know Mariam quite well, right?" Max asked him.

"Yeah, so?"

"What do we actually know about her?"

Rei thought for a moment, "What do you mean by that?"

Max took a deep breath, "We know who she is and we talk to her like we know a lot about her," Max started while looking at Mariam's book. His gaze then shuffled onto Rei, "But do we actually know anything about her family or her childhood. You know, things like that."

"I think you have a point there." Rei commented after he thought about it, "We don't actually know anything about her."

"You think she ever talks to Mariah about this stuff?" Max wondered as he lied down on his bed.

* * *

Her smile was so... so...

"Tyson." Called a cold voice from beside him.

It snapped Tyson right out of his thought, "What?" he asked as he faced Kai.

"You don't stare at a girl you like, you flirt with others." Kai advised without looking at Tyson.

Tyson nodded in comprehension before he looked away from Hilary, who was still at the table with Mariah, Mathilda, Julia and Enrique who still had an arm round Julia. This to Tyson was a good sign- Enrique was now officially off the dating market.

Rei and Max were slowly wandering over to the table, in hope that the girls wouldn't be mad at them for not telling them what they wanted to know. They sat down at the table in silence, waiting for the perfect time to slip their aimed topic of conversation in.

"Where did you run off to?" Mariah asked Rei after the girls decided to stop what they were talking about.

"My room, but Max and I were talking about something that seemed quite... unknown." Rei said, unsure of how to describe it.

"And that would be...?" Hilary coaxed.

"We all know Mariam as a friend right?" Max started. The girls nodded before Max continued, "What do we actually know about her, in terms of her background."

Without thinking, Mariah attempted to answer it, "Well, I know that she is..." she stopped when she couldn't think of anything, "Max actually has a point... For once."

"Some offence taken." Max muttered. Mariah heard him but chose to ignored him.

"He's right. We've known her for a few years yet none of us actually know her." Hilary agreed, "I mean, she does keep to herself a lot and she does spend equal or more time with Ozuma, Dunga and her little brother." Hilary finished

"Her little what?" Max practically yelled. Calling him shocked would've been an understatement.

"She said Mariam keeps to he-" Mariah started before Max shoved his hand over her lips.

"I heard that part." Max said before he removed his hand, "I was just shocked to hear that Mariam and Joseph are siblings."

If only Max had known that before. After all, he did take her book without having someone shoving it into his hands... Like the watch...

* * *

"Joseph!" Mariam called in a loud whisper, "Joseph!"

"Over here!" her brother called back in the same hushed way.

Mariam walked closer to where the sound of his voice was coming from. He was sitting on one of the branches of the tall tree that the two of them plus Dunga and Ozuma always sat when they were hiding from certain people in their school. It was a hidden place that they found one summer by accident and since then, it has become their secret hiding place that no one else knew about.

"Did she see you?" Joseph asked anxiously as soon as his sister climbed up the tree and sat down beside him.

"I don't think so." Mariam answered, "Ozuma was trying to distract her. He said he'll call when she's gone."

* * *

Meanwhile the girls plus Rei, Max and Enrique were still at the table trying to geuss what Mariam's childhood was like when they noticed a well-dressed brunette women being stopped in her track by Ozuma and Dunga, but where was Mariam and Joseph. Wasn't Mariam always with Ozuma whenever she wasn't them.

"Mariah go listen to what they're saying." Julia ordered.

"Don't get Mariah to do it: she's so bad at being subtle." Rei pointed out and to his suprise, the others did not know that.

"Really?" They all asked.

"Yes, but that's not the point." Rei said before an idea hit him, "Let's try and move this table forward."

Everyone did what Rei suggested. Luckily, they were sitting at a table that was made from wood and not the stone table. They moved close to them and stopped when they were within hearing range.

"Hi Ellie." Ozuma started, "Why are you here?"

"I am here to see Mariam of course." she answered in a motherly way.

"Why?" Dunga asked, "Don't you love her?" He asked, trying to not make that face he made when he ever had the thought of someone loving Mariam, which was a cross between someone choking and someone being sprayed by a skunk.

"I do. That's kind of why I am here."

"That is also why Mariam ran far away." Dunga whispered to Ozuma, but his whispers were always as loud as some trying to project their voice in a theater. Ozuma nudged him in the stomach

"What was that, dear?" She asked him sweetly.

"What he meant was that she knows you love her so she ran back home to visit you." Ozuma thought on his feet, trying to cover up what Dunga had said. And it appeared to be working.

"Oh. Okay." She said disappointedly and just when the two boys thought that she was about to leave, she comes back with more to say, "Then where's Joseph?"

"Joseph?" Ozuma repeated, "He is in the village somewhere." he lied.

Ellie let out an angry sigh, "Why can't he be more considerate like his older sister." She questioned while shaking her head, "Anyway, I better get home quickly before she makes it home and sees that I'm not there." She smiled at them, "Bye boys." With that, she turned and started to walk towards her slick, black limo."

"So that's the women that Mariam was running from." Max said out loud by mistake.

Mariah gasped, "Max. You know something we don't, so spill."

Max panicked for a bit before he said: "I know a lot of things that you don't." Why didn't he just tell them the little bit of information that he knew? Simple because he didn't want a girl he liked to be judged.

"You know what I mean." Mariah was desperate to know the little bit of information and his friends were all on Mariah's side. Six against one really wasn't a fair fight so Max gave up.

"She's not visiting that women." Max replied simply, "She's avoiding her."

"Mariam's actually afraid of something that's not a dress?" Mariah questioned.

"That's really weird." Hilary commented, "She's not afriad of those freaky Halloween dudes yet she's afraid of a women wearing really nice clothes?"

"And shoes." Mariah added, Mathilda agreed with her.

Just then, Ozuma came over to their table, "Everyone here is friends with Mariam, right?" He asked quichly while Dunga ran in another direction.

"Yeah, why." They asked.

"I'll explain later, just help me stop that women from making it to her limo." Ozuma demanded in a nice way.

They all left their seats and tried to stall the women, one by one they all tried different tactics to save Mariam.

"Hello Madam," Hilary greeted, "I'm trying to sell some... some..." Hilary rummaged around in her pockets for something to sell, "pens" she pulled out a pen from her pocket.

"No thank you." she turned down Hilary's offer, "I'm in a hurry."

They noticed Mariam run towards the school gates when Mariah was walking towards this women. Ozuma tried to urge her to move faster. Max watched Ozuma's actions and thought about how jealous he would've been if he didn't know the relationship between Ozuma and Mariam. But now he had something else to consider: his relationship.

"Hiiiii theeeerrrreee." Mariah was trying to stretch out every word, " Youuuuu looooook liikkkkkkkeee youuuuu'rrrreeee aaaaa mmmmmoooddddeeeelllllllll."

The women simply shoved her out the way and continued to walk.

"Well, that was rude." Mariah muttered to herself.

Next up to try was Rei. He jumped in front of her. "Hi there madam," He started, "You look like you could use some exercise and I just so hap-"

"What are you trying to say about me?" she damanded, "Are you calling me fat?" She asked, using her hands to emphsis her extremely slim figure in the very fancy looking red, figure-hugging dress.

"No! Of course not!"

"Good. Now move."

Max decided to help out next. He strolled up to her.

"Hello." Max greeted.

"Are trying to compliment my figure, insult my figure or sell me a used pen?" She asked him in a fiesty manner.

"Neither." He replied.

'Oh dear.' The others thought, 'How is he supposed to stall her now if he just said that.'

"I'm here to make an exchange with you." he stated as he pulled out a ten dollar bill from his back pocket.

"What kind of exchange?" She asked with a curious look.

The others started to wonder where this was going, after all, it wasn't like Max to just offer to waste money like that.

"I'll trade you this for a fifty dollar bill." Max offered and to his and his friends' suprise, the women actually considered it.

"Deal." The women said, which suprised everyone even more.

"Thank you madam." Max said before he saw the others trying to urge him to stall for a bit longer, "And by the way did you know that superman is behind you." He lied, as he pointed to a bird in the sky.

"Oh I see him." She said gullibly, "He seems a lot flimsier in person don't you think."

Mariah and the others laughed at the fact that she fell for that superman stunt, Rei was laughing too but only at the fact that there was a living person who was even more obtuse than the girls he knew, especially Mariah. Ozuma shook his head disapprovingly.

"I totally agree with you." Max said even though he wasn't looking. Instead, he was slowly backing away from her and towards his friends.

She stood there staring at the bird for a little while longer until the limo driver spotted her and showed her to the car.

"Did we stalled enough time." Hilary asked.

"It's hard to say. Mariam has quite a long distance to run." Ozuma commented.

* * *

Mariam was almost at her house. She had to run the length of the village just to get there and she was only a matter of footsteps away from the front door. She opened the door, which wasn't locked because the mansion was always filled with maids.

"Welcome back." greeted one of the maids, who was cleaning the antique vase that was sitting on a tall round mahogany table by the door.

"Hi." Mariam sad back while panting, "Is Ellie here?"

"No. She went to see you at school." The maid answered.

"Good." Mariam said to herself, "Can you do me a favor?" she asked the maid, who nodded before Mariam proceeded, "When Ellie comes back, tell her that I've been here for a while. Thank you." Mariam dashed up to her room before the maid could even respond.

Once Mariam was inside her bedroom, the first thing she did was phoned Ozuma.

He answered the call after two rings, "Mariam are you there yet?" He asked.

"Yes. Has she left the campus?" Mariam asked anxiously.

"Yes after a while, thanks to your friends, mainly Max." Ozuma answered.

Mariam smiled at what Ozuma said, "Why? what did he do?" She asked just before she heard a car pull up onto the driveway, "Wait, tell me later. She's back, bye." with that, Mariam hung up.

Ozuma put his phone away before he was shortly bombarded with questions.

"Did she make it back?" Mariah asked.

"Who was that women?" Hilary asked.

"Why did you ask us if we were friends with Mariam. She's got something to do with Mariam, doesn't she?" Julia asked.

"You said you'd explain everything later, so start talking." Mariah demanded.

Ozuma silenced them before he started to say: "I don't think I should."

"Why?" The girls yelled at him.

"Because it's Mariam and Joseph's business and I don't know if they want to tell you." He explained before he walked away.

Mariah, Hilary, Mathilda and Julia all looked at each other, 'Then there's only one thing to do...' They all thought except for Mathilda, who pretended to know what they were going to do next.

Mariam finally made it back to her dorm at almost midnight- that Ellie sure could talk for a long time. Inside her dorm was her roomate, who had fallen asleep with a few of her friends that she must've invited over. Mariam grabbed her pyjamas (a white tank top and a white pair of shorts) before heading into the shower for a quick wash. She thought about what had happened today: Ellie came to the school to look for her. She was going to have some explaining to do...


	10. Chapter 9: Let's Find Out Some Info

**All it took was Eye Contact**

Yay another chapter up and another yay because I'm done with all my exams for this year! Woohoo! This chapter wasn't exactly what I had in mind but I think it turned out better.

Disclaimer: Don't own like half the stuff I write about- Beyblade being one of them.

**Chapter 9: Let's Scope Out Some Information.**

When Mariah and her little gossip crew woke up the next day, the first thing they wanted to do was to do an old school good cop, bad cop questioning session with Mariam, but she woke up before any of them and pretty much fled the place. Dealing with many words first thing in the morning was not the first thing she wanted to face.

Mariam had went to her hiding place from yesterday to avoid her friends until further notice as well as trying to obtain some answers of her own.

"How the hell am I suppose to know that she was going to visit us!" Joseph answered her sister's question, "She never emails me!"

"You should consider yourself lucky." Mariam commented, "I hate being her favourit..." She went all quiet and stood up from the tree branch that she was standing on.

Her brother stood up beside her, "What are you going to tell your friends?" Joseph asked her.

Mariam flashed a smile at him, "The truth."

* * *

"Okay Mariam, spill!" Mariah demanded after she shoved her roomate onto a wooden seat that was at the same table as the one from the day before.

Mariam thought about how to start explaining everything, "What do you want to know?" She asked them.

Max budged in, "You and Joseph are brothers?" He questioned in a shocked way.

"I see you've finally found out." Mariam said calmly.

"Then what about that well dressed, snobby women?" Hilary asked, giving the best description as possible.

"You mean Ellie?" Mariam asked and the others nodded even if they didn't know her name. "She's my mother."

"You're mother?" Everyone exclaimed in unison. Mariam nodded.

"That makes no sense." Hilary said, "You're so care free and she's so... not."

Max suddenly stood up, "I see the connection now, your hair is blue like a soothing ocean and Joseph is green like a peaceful meadow while hers is um... like a nice mud bath."

"I should probably tell you that she's not my real mother." Mariam stated.

"Oh good, 'cause it's like a landslide." Max said, relieved, "Plus I think mud baths are icky."

The girls (minus Mariam like usual) gasped.

"How could you say that?" Mariah yelled at him.

"But that's only my opinion." Max quickly added to defend himself from all the offended looks that he was recieving.

Rei ignored them and joined in the questioning, "Since when did you come from a limo-driving foster family?"

"Since I was almost four." Mariam remembered, "I don't really know much about my real parents."

"What about your bangles and earrings?" Julia asked, "You, Joseph, Ozuma and Dunga all have the same one. It's not a friend charm is it? 'Cause I didn't think guys would wear them."

"Plus they're really old!" Mariah added.

"To be honest, I don't actually know anything about them." Mariam looked at her artifact-looking gold, engraved bangle. She thought about Julia's question before she spoke again, "I only remembered being told to never lose it by my mother the night before we parted... Ozuma and Dunga were both told the same thing but Joseph wasn't- he was too young to understand."

"Doesn't that Ellie know anything about it?" Kenny asked.

"She's so protective of me, why would she want me to find out about my past. She buys me lots of jewellery just so that she can get rid of these ones." She said, indicating her earrings and bangles.

"Maybe they're like suppose to represent something." Mariah suggested.

Everyone just stared at her with wide eyes.

"Mariah? Did you just have an intelligent thought?" Mariam asked.

"Hey, I'm not just pretty." Mariah said immodestly. The others just rolled their eyes.

"I think I should look into this." Kenny suggested while he pulled out his laptop from his bag.

"And I think I'll pay Ellie another visit, one that is not forced."

"Wait. That women has a favourit child?" Max asked as Mariam stood up from her seat.

Mariam nodded, "The deal I proposed to her on my adoption date was that if she was going to adopt me, she'd have to take my brother too."

"Clever." Max applauded.

* * *

Hilary saw Tyson as she walked towards the dormetry building. He looked away and started to talk to some other girls when he noticed Hilary.

She looked away and started to think to herself, 'What if Tyson really wasn't interested in her? Would she have to move on? I always thought that he and I would make a great couple...'

Kai, who was standing beside Tyson the whole time, decided to compliment his (semi)quick grasping by saying: "Nice." Before he ruined the moment and ordered him to go do his laundry.

* * *

Kenny sat at his desk in his room and continued to search for the jewellery's history- if there was one.

Tyson entered the room and sprawled out onto his bed.

Kenny looked away from his laptop for a moment to speak to Tyson, "Where were you today?" he asked, "With Kai?"

"Close. I was hanging with his laundry again." Tyson corrected, "I hate that guy."

Kenny turned away from Tyson and back to his research.

"What you doing there Cheif?" Tyson asked him while he used his arms to prop his upper body.

"Research."

"There's a shock." Tyson muttered sarcastically, "Can you be more specific."

"Artifacts."

"A bit more specific?" Tyson said.

"It's on a bit of jewellery, Mariam's to be precise." Kenny specified, not once lifting his attention away from the monitor.

"That really old one that she always wears?" Tyson asked.

"Yeah." Kenny confirmed, "It could symbolize something."

"Like?" Tyson coaxed.

"Don't know yet, hence why I'm trying to research it." Kenny answered him.

"Why are you trying to find out stuff about it?"

"It seems quite suspicious to me. You won't understand unless you were with us today." So Kenny started to explain it to his stubborn roomate.

Mariam entered her dorm to a room full of people after her trip home. She looked at them as if to say 'why are you all here?'.

"How did it go?" Mariah asked her anxiously.

"She didn't say anything..." Mariam started sadly, "But, she did look like she was hiding something from me when I asked her about my jewellery."

"So does that mean..." Rei started, hoping that Mariam was going to say what they all wanted to hear.

"I'm going to keep talking to her and see if I can make her tell me whatever she knows that I don't." She told them her latest task.

"Well I thought that you'd like to know that I found out a little bit of information about an earring pattern but I wasn't sure if it was the same one as yours." Kenny reported while handing a print out to Mariam.

"It's not mine." Mariam said. Everyone let out a sigh of disappointment before she went on to say: "But I can say that it is identicle to Ozuma's earring." before everyone perked up again.

"This accessory is meant to represent leadership," Kenny explained, "And it's only suppose to be ever worn by a male member of an ancient clan known as the Saint Sheilds."

Mariam went off into a daze at the name 'Saint Sheilds'. The name sounded familiar to her yet she couldn't remember where had she heard it from and why had she heard of it.

"Mariam." Max called, waving a hand in front of her face, only to have it slapped away by her.

"You okay?" Hilary asked her, "You kinda zoned out for a second there."

"Yeah but the Saint Sheilds... The name sounds so familiar." She announced, "I think I vaguely remember my mother telling me about them when I was little, especially on the night before we parted."

"Wait." Tyson said, "You had a party with your real mother?"

Everyone rolled their eyes at him.

"No she means the verb to part, not the verb to party." Hilary corrected, "Even Diachi can't make that mistake."

Tyson looked over to her and she looked away. Even someone as dumb as Tyson could tell that Hilary was angry at him. Too bad he wasn't sensative enough to understand why.

* * *

The next day, after classes...

Mariam returned to house to 'visit' Ellie again, but this time, she had some different questions to ask her.

"Welcome home." Greeted two maids when she walked through the door.

Mariam just nodded to aknowledge them before she headed into the large back garden to see if Ellie was there, which she was. Mariam took a deep breathe, "Ellie." She said. She couldn't believe that she was making herself do this. In her opinion, she had paid to many visits to her this week.

"Mariam dear," she said happily while trying to sit up, "come sit." she patted the part of the sun bathing chair that held her legs up.

Mariam braced herself for the long two hours that she was going to be here for.

* * *

After her two long hours with her very stubborn foster mother up, Mariam walked out of the house after declining a lift back up to the school. It was going to be long walk due to the strong heat and the uphill slope. She was starting to wish that she didn't decline the lift, that was until she saw Max walking out one of the little shops that was located near the bottom of the village and across the road from where she stood.

Max looked up from his bag and saw Mariam, so he crossed the road to meet her.

"What are you doing down here?" Mariam asked.

"It's called forced to buy a very specific brand of chocolate that is only sold in that shop." He pointed to the shop that he had just left moments ago.

"Why?"

"Beacause Emily asked me to." Max said in an annoyed way.

Mariam nodded understandingly, "What did she say to you last time?"

Max was a bit caught off gaurd by her question, "Emm, just stuff." Max replied, thinking about how different things would've been if Mariam had finished her sentence that day.

"That is so specific Max. Thank you for narrowing it down so much." Mariam commented sarcastically.

"What's going on up ahead." Max asked, while pointing to the man wearing a giant poster.

Mariam read it as they neared the man, "'Come and see the grand reopening of the amusement park!' Wait, is that the one that's on the outskirts of this town?" She asked the man, who handed her a flyer.

"Yup, it's re-opeing in two weeks." he said to Mariam, "You know young man, you should ask your little lady to go with you." He suggested.

Mariam shook her head, "People these days, always assuming things."

"It's not always necessary bad." Max said to Mariam before he spoke to the man, "She's just a- where did he go?"

"He walked away when you were talking to me." Mariam laughed at Max's confused side, "And what do you mean by assuming things is not always necessary bad?" Mariam asked.

"Well it's just sometimes when you don't assume something, it could make your life," Max said to her out loud, "and mine," he added quietly, "a whole lot easier."

Mariam stared at him as if to say: 'care to elaborate?'

Max thought about how it was probably going to be better if Mariam didn't know that he was going out with Emily again, that way, he could break up with her and act as if nothing had ever happened. Right, he knew how he was going to reply, "Not really."

"Fair enough."

* * *

"What is wrong with you lately?" Mariam asked Mariah, "You seem so slow on the gossip, which is very unlike you."

"Well I did hear something that you might like to know about Max." Mariah tried to compensate for the lack of gossip.

"Like?" Mariam cajoled.

"Like how he and Emily are officially an item again." she said.

"Really? When was this?" Mariam sked trying not to show how shocked she really was.

Mariah turned the page in her magazine, "The same day that the whole inccident with that Ellie. Speaking of which, did you find out anything?"

"More than my share." Mariam answered, "Apparently, she's getting her legs waxed tomorrow afternoon followed by a facial specialist."

"Not what I meant," Mariah admitted, "But wow, I want to do that!"

"When I asked her about the Saint Sheilds, she wouldn't look at me." Mariam stated, "Definitly hiding something."

"What are you going to do then?" Mariah asked her.

"I'm going out for a while." Mariam picked up her bag and headed towards the door.

Mariah noticed something that had fallen out of her roomate's bag so (being the nosy girl she is) she picked it up and read it. After she had read it, she decided to go tell everyone the good news that was on the flyer, the news about the amusement park.

* * *

It's a pretty short chapter but in my defence, I had so much to do this week. Well until next time, Bye.


	11. Chapter 10: News travels fast

**All it took was Eye Contact**

I'm still alive and I've finally found time to type up the next chapter, so here it is. But I'd like to say that there isn't really much to it... Sorry... I blame school- my teachers are piling on the homework and all that.

Disclaimer: Who said I own Beyblade anyway?

**Chapter 10: News Travels Fast**

The room would have been completly quiet if the tippy tappy noises coming from Kenny's laptop and the loud snoring noises from Tyson were ignored. It was late and the whole student body was fast asleep.

Kenny was so captivated by his latest research topic that he had decided to give up his night of sleep to continue looking at the newly found information about a clan known as the Saint Sheilds. He started to develop this habit when he promised Mariam to help her find out about her past. The plan was that he would look up some information about the clan that she had mentioned and she would go and try to scope out some information from Ellie.

But so far, neither one of them was having any luck what-so-ever... But Mariam did mention a plan...

* * *

The next day, outside Mariam's house...

Ozuma was standing on the porch as he waited for someone to open the door.

Behind one of the large hedges that surrounded the driveway was his three closest friend's hiding and spying.

Ozuma felt the urge to walk away. Mariam owed him many favors as it is, but then again, he owed Joseph more than he owed anyone else- more than anyone can ever own someone!

After knocking again, someone -being Ellie- finally opened the door. She smiled, suprised to see who it was.

'Oh God!' Ozuma thought, 'This is going to be the longest thirty minutes that I'm going to ever experience.'

Two hours later...

"I thought he was meant to be out over an hour ago." Dunga complained, while emptying the rest of the chicken flavoured crisps into his mouth.

"Be patient." Mariam said, "You know how chatty Ellie can get, especially around Ozuma... Or anyone with nice hair. And by the way, it was meant to be an hour and a half ago."

"Wait. 'Be patient'?" Joseph quoted, "Are you really Mariam? It doesn't sound like a thing my sis would usually say." He opened another chocolate bar.

"Shh, I think I see the door opening." Mariam said before the other two leaped up a little and peaked through the hedge.

"What's wrong with my hair?" Dunga asked the surroundings before he peeked through the gaps in the hedge, "Why is Ellie holding his hand?" Dunga asked in a hushed, disgusted voice.

"I don't know, but it's kinda creepy." Mariam commented with a repulsed expression.

"She never even tries to hold mine..." Joseph stated, "I guess I'm the lucky one."

"If you like a certain girl then yeah." Mariam said, meaning Ming Ming and she knew she got her point across when her brother pretended to gag.

"What girl?" Dunga asked.

Mariam and Joseph ignored his question and made a gesture for Ozuma to come over when they heard the door close.

"I am never doing that again." Ozuma sound like anything but pleased.

"Did you find anything out?" Mariam asked eagerly as they all started to walk back towards the school campus.

"Not much. Other than 'they're really old, now tell me, do you spend a lot of time on your hair?'" Ozuma quoted to them, "So I didn't find out much and for the record, we're even."

* * *

"Really?" Hilary, Julia and Mathilda shouted.

"Yup." Mariah confirmed, "The amusement park opens in about two weeks."

"It's going to be so good." Julia commented, "It opens before the European exchange students leave. I hope you don't mind if I steal Enrique away from you that night." She said and asked Hilary.

"You can do that after we get Hilary and Tyson their first date." Mariah said with her trademark scheme face on.

Hilary looked at Mariah, confused while Mariah just smiled and nodded. "We're gonna do what we see on the tele all the time." Mariah planned.

"Oh God." Hilary thought aloud, "That's so unoriginal."

"But you like it, right?" Mathilda asked

"I don't even know what all of you are planning."

* * *

Max and Rei both headed to Tyson and Kenny's dorm. The door wasn't closed properly.

"Were they expecting us?" Max asked, looking at Rei.

Rei just urged him to enter the room that was close to pitch black. The curtains were shut and all the lamp and light producing appliances (minus Kenny's laptop) were off. Both Kenny and Tyson were sleeping. It was unusual for Kenny to be still asleep after ten in the morning, especially not on his bed, but for Tyson, it was to be expected.

Max sat on the side of Tyson's bed. "Wake up Tyson." He whispered while gently slapping his cheek.

No response.

"Ignore him." Rei commanded, "Let's wake Kenny up." He finished before he approached Kenny and gently shook him. "It'll be a whole lot quicker."

Kenny slowly raised his head up from his arm, which was on top of his desk, next to his laptop. His eyes widened when he noticed Max and Rei's outline. "How did you guys get in?" He asked drowsily.

"Simple, we walked in." Max replied, pointing out the obvious.

"Yeah but how did you walk in, the door was locked."

"No it wasn't." Max said, "It was barely shut properly, never mind locked."

"Anyway," Rei interrupted, "Did you find out anything else?"

"No not yet." Kenny yawned. He stretched his arms upwards.

"How did Mariam's plan go?" Rei asked.

Max stood silently for a while as he thought about the last time in P.E. class with her which was also the last time he had seen her.

*FLASHBACK*

Max headed towards the bleachers to where Mariam was sitting. They both sat side by side and in silence for a while, that is until Mariam broke it.

"So I heard you and Emily got back together." Mariam started.

'Great.' Max thought, 'She decides to talk abut the akward topic that she wasn't suppose to know about. Actually how did she find out?'

"Max?" Mariam called out after she gained no response from the younger blond.

"What?" Max asked, coming back to reality, "You say something?"

"Yeah. You and Emily?"

"Yeah, um... Look over there. It's Superman!" Max yelled before he tried to make a run for it, but ended up falling down onto his back due to Mariam's firm hold on his wrist.

"That can work on a lot of people here, but not me." Mariam said.

"Why not?" Max asked, trying to avoid her question just like how he avoids Emily's.

"Because I grew up with someone who always does that. Now answer me."

But before Max got to answer, the coach dismissed the finished students so Max bolted for it and got off the hook.

*END FLASHBACK*

"Earth to Max!" Tyson said while waving a hand in front of his face.

"Tyson! When did you wake up?" Max questioned.

"Just there." He answered as he sat on the foot end of his bed. "I mean, who can sleep with all the racket."

"You can." Max replied simply.

Just then, there was a quiet knock on the door before it swung open to reveal Mariam.

"Mariam." Kenny greeted, "How did it go?"

"Ozuma went in for longer than we thought and came out with nothing." Mariam answered as she sat down on Kenny's neatly made bed.

"How did you get him to do that?" Rei asked, "I thought he never does favors for anyone."

"Why did it have to be him?" Max asked.

"Well, we decided that he should do it because he's one of Ellie's favourite teens," Mariam started, while the others just stared blankly at her, "Don't ask why. Anyway, I owe him favors but he owes Joseph a lot and my brother owes me even more so we compromised."

"Now what are you going to do?" Rei asked.

"I don't know yet. I'll need time to think." Mariam answered disappointedly, "Kenny?"

"Nothing new, all I know is they live in very isolated areas and they have some very strict rules."

"Such as?" Mariam coaxed.

"I'm gonna go. Bye." Max said before he started to leave.

"If a child is-" Kenny started before he was quickly cut off.

"I'm gonna go too. Later." Mariam said quickly before she went after Max, who was slowly walking down the hall.

Kenny looked at his remaining two friends.

"Why did Mariam take off so soon?" Tyson wondered.

"Maybe she was thinking about making Max go question that snobby foster mother of hers." Rei guessed, "She did seem to like Max."

"Either that or she was going to ask Max out!" Tyson joked.

* * *

Mariam caught up with Max shortly after leaving Kenny's dorm. Max halted when he felt Mariam's hand on his shoulder.

"I see you're still trying to avoid my question." Mariam started as she slowed her pace down so that she was walking in time with him.

"Why do you say that?" Max asked.

Mariam looked at him as if to say 'isn't it obvious?'.

"Okay, Emily and I are back together." Max gave in but a thought occured to him, "Why do you care?" He asked with a suspicious grin.

Mariam tapped the side of her nose before she walked off.

After Max was out of sight, she let out a sigh of relief. 'Now it's my turn to avoid his question.'

* * *

Mariam entered her dorm to see her roomate and a bunch of her friends, with Hilary strapped to a chair in front of their vanity that only Mariah uses.

"Help me!" Hilary yelled over to Mariam when she spotted her entering the room.

Mariah, Julia and Mathilda all swirled round at the same time with the same evil glare.

"Don't you dare." Mariah said.

"Why? What did Hilary do?"

"No. It's what she won't to do." Mariah replied.

"And what does she not want to do." Mariam asked.

"Let them put all that on me." Hilary shouted, using her head to indicate all the cosmetics on the vanity.

"Come on Hilary." Julia said, "Man up a bit."

"Okay. But if I was a guy, I wouldn't wear make-up." Hilary replied smugly.

"Oh well. We're going to get you and Tyson a date even if we have to make you gay!" Mariah argued.

"Please send for help." Hilary requested before Mariam shut the door.

* * *

Now, does anyone know how to write a good personal study essay? Could use some hints. Also my story, hope you've enjoyed this little stepping stone chapter as I like to call these. :)


	12. Chapter 11: Old News

**All it took was Eye Contact**

Lookie! I finished another chapter! It took longer than I thought due to the fact that I was away on holiday then I had to baby-sit my little cousins when they came for a visit.

Disclaimer: If I own Beyblade, why do I still live in a small house with lots of people?

**Chapter 11: Old News**

It was once again the weekend and unlike most other ones, this week there was a few stands selling various foods and accesories, even Principal Dickinson was getting involved. He dotted from stall to stall before he settled down and started to announce a bunch of random things that no one paid attention to.

Max sat at a small table by himself, staring at his Pink Panther cocktail that was in front of him. He recently did what he felt he had to, so why doesn't he feel better?

His thoughts were shortly interrupted by Rei, who was eating a large cotton candy that was bigger than his head. "It's a bit lonely sitting out here isn't it?" Rei asked, "What's wrong?" he sat down beside him.

Max looked up and forced a smile, "Nothing." he answered bluntly and straightened up in his seat.

"Max, the school is selling nothing but candy today. What is wrong?" he repeated.

"Where's your girlfriend?" Max asked, trying to change the subject... Badly.

"At the bathroom... Are you asking because you have girlfriend troubles?"

Max's eyes widened a little. "No, not at all." he lied while thinking 'busted!'.

"What did you two do now?" Rei asked, his role as Max's relationship consultant was back... Or so he thought

"I told you already, it's not relationship troubles." he replied calmly, even though he really wanted to scream it. He sighed before he added: "I'm not even in a relationship anymore." he noticed Mariah nearby and pointed her out to Rei before he walked off, not giving Rei a chance to respond.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Mariam sat down at a table by herself with a book in her hands. She sat quite close to the dormetry building (which is far away from the stalls), like last time when Ellie came to the school.

Max who just happens to conveniently pass this table at the same time everyday - which happens to be Mariam's reading time. He decided that he would pluck up the courage and sit by her even though he was no longer avoiding her: now it was more like the other way around.

Mariam looked up in time to see Max come towards her. She smiled and placed her feet onto the floor so that Max could sit on it.

"Why aren't you at the stalls?" Max asked her, "You seem lonely sitting back here."

"Why aren't _you_ at the stalls?" Mariam questioned back.

"I asked you first." Max countered with his feet on the chair opposite him.

"But I'm older." Mariam said just to annoy Max, knowing that he has a thing for answering first if the asker is older.

"Okay, so it's boring!" Max suddenly shouted, "Now you answer me."

"Okay then, I'm here because of the same reason."

"You just stole my answer." Max exclaimed.

"How did you know that I wasn't going to say that." Mariam questioned, "Face it Max, you're just not the type to debate with people."

'That's what you think.' Max thought to himself, 'You didn't see me argue with Emily over and over and ov-'

"Max?" Mariam called, "I didn't upset you that much, did I?"

Max snapped out of his thought before he spoke up, "Of course not, I was just lost in my thought... But I have a question for you."

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

"Everyone!" shouted Principal Dickenson through a bull horn, "I have some good news!"

All the students stopped what they were doing and turned to face the Principal.

"Are through yelling at us!" shouted a voice that sounded like Joseph's.

The Principal ignored the remark and continued to speak. "As you all know, the school is situated near the old abandoned amusement park."

Before the principal could say anymore, Mariah stood on her table and shouted: "It's reopening in a week!" followed by many cheers and the Principal's confused look.

"How did you know?" Principal Dickenson asked after he had approached the table.

"I found a flyer." Mariah answered.

"Where did you find it?"

"On the floor."

"Of where?"

"The planet we all know as Earth." Mariah finished while drawing an imaginary circle in the air with her right index finger.

Principal Dickenson just slapped his forehead in defeat to Mariah's so-called-answers.

Rei just laughed.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

By the water fountain...

"Tell me!" Max yelled. He was standing on the ledge of the waterfountain while dangling Mariam's book above it.

"Why?" Mariam asked while standing beside him.

"'Cause I want to know!" he yelled over the loud crashing water noises.

"Well, you're not going to know!" Mariam yelled back before she used one finger to prod his hip, causing him to let go of the book- which Mariam caught- where as Max fell into the fountain. "Thank-you." Mariam said casually as she caught her book before dropping it after being dragged into the fountain by Max, who was completely wet.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Meanwhile on the otherside of the fountain...

"Tyson stop trying to give in." Kai ordered.

Tyson tried to look away form the person that interested him: Hilary.

She looked a lot different from before due to the make over that she was forced to have. Instead of her usual pink long sleeved top, she wore a short sleeved white t-shirt that had a white bow on top and her white skirt had been replaced by a pair of tight fitting three quater lenght jeans (that Mariah stole from Mariam's half of the cupboard).

Tyson had to admit that he liked what Hilary usually wears but her new appearance was... Less smart but it looked even better on her than her old outfit.

At any moment now, Tyson was about to just give in and just break his secret and Kai could tell he was going to. But is he planning to do anything about it? No. The deal was that Tyson has to do his laundry anyway so it didn't really affect him.

With a groan, Tyson stood up straight and marched straight up to Hilary and sat down beside her. "We need to talk about A LOT of things." he said.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

"Why on Earth did you do that?!" Mariam demanded to know, not in a feirce way though. She stood up in the fountain beside Max after he dragged her in.

"Because you shoved me in." he shook his head to dry his hair out.

"You stole my book."

"Yes, but you ignored me when I asked you."

Mariam gave him a glare at that last defensive statement. "I wasn't ignoring you." she said as she climbed out of the fountain, "I'm just choosing to not answer your question now."

Max followed her actions. "That's just the same as-" he suddenly realised what Mariam had said and whether she meant it or not, he was going to use it against her. He sped up a little so he could stop Mariam in her track. "Wait. Does that mean you're going to tell me? Because I heard you say 'now' at the end of your sentence."

"Yeah but that doesn't mean I'm going to answer you anytime today." Mariam replied before she started to walk again.

"Where are you going?" Max shouted to her.

"To dry myself. You should too!" Mariam answered as she walked further and further away.

"I'll find my answer oneday." Max said to himself.

"Your answer to what?" Rei asked, appearing out of nowhere.

Max jumped. "Where did you come from?" Max asked him.

"The planet we all know as Earth" Rei replied before he cursed himself for talking like that, "Darn it."

"You've pretty much not answered my question." Max stated.

"I blame Mariah."

"What did she do?"

"I'll tell you later."

Meanwhile...

"Where abouts on the campus?" asked Principal Dickenson.

"I told you already! The floor! Weren't you listening?!" Mariah yelled, "Geez."

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Hilary sat there watching Tyson fidget with the little empty packets of sugar that was on the table. "What do we need to talk about?" she asked him.

"Well, you see..." Tyson started to say, a bit unsure about how to approach the subject, "I hear the amusement park is no longer abandoned."

"How can you not when Mariah's told just about everyone!" Hilary pointed out.

"Yeah. Listen. When the amusement park re-opens next weekend, I want you to meet me by the entrance at seven." he started to get up from his seat.

"And if I don't?" Hilary asked.

"I won't leave." Tyson replied, "I'll wait until you show up."

"But Tyson, how do you know I will?" Hilary asked, she was liking the moment that she had dreamed about for a long time.

Tyson looked at the nearby tables before he spotted a teacup full with hot tea. "Because I just did this." he answered her before he tipped it onto her clothes and sprinted off.

"Tyson Granger!" She screamed angrily.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Kenny continued to research the Saint Sheilds while everyone else was having fun and enjoying themselves. But to Kenny, researching is fun. He had already decided that he was going to spend the rest of his life doing it. He skimmed through all the information that he could find until he found something that he thought was useful before he properly read it and saved it if it was relivant in any way.

He had found out enough about them to make out a rough outline of who these people were and he knew that it was only a matter of time before he would find what he is looking for.

"Ah-" he said to himself. Before he frantically pressed a few buttons and continued to skim read. It was just more information.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

This should be the second last chapter if the next chapter goes according to plan. I don't have a MaxxMariam fic in my mind at the moment but I do have a TysonxHilary fic forming so look out for that. Also don't worry, what Max asked Mariam will be revealed in the next chapter if you haven't figured it out.

Until next time, bye! :)


	13. Chapter 12: Have I got News for You

**All it Took was Eye Contact**

A/N: It's been over a year already? I can't believe! a few days ago, I was going to delete this story but I couldn't make myself do it so intead, I decided to complete it! Yeah, I don't get my logic either...

Anyway, I want to warn you in advance that the computor I'm typing from has no spell checker and I think the last chapter will be split into two parts. Also, this chapter is shorter than my other ones (excluding the prologue).

Disclaimer: see profile.

**Chapter 12: Have I got news for You**

The bell to signal the end of the lesson just rang. Most of the students have already fled the class as if a stampede of bulls were coming straight at them. The only people left in the class were Max- who was trying to cram his bulging English folder back into his bag- and Mariam, who was almost at the door.

Max, noticing her retreating form, gave up on trying to shove everything into his bag and decided to carry them by hand. He'd been thinking about something for a while, considering the consequences of what he was about to ask Mariam.

He sped up his pace a bit and cleared his throat before he finaly spoke up. "Mariam?"

The bluenette stopped and semi turned round to face the blond. "Max." She said.

"How boring was that lesson back there." Max started, attempting to make some small talk.

Mariam started to walk again, a little bit slower this time so that Max could keep up while trying to keep paper from scattering out of his folder. "It was okay for me."

"Why because of the window seat?" Max joked.

Mariam nodded, "Pretty much."

They had walked down the hall and the exit was only a mere five metres or so away.

'Come on Max, this is the perfect moment!' He thought to himself and with a deep breath, he went for it. "You know Mariam," he took another deep breath, "I was wondering if you were busy this Friday."

She thought for a moment. "No. Why?"

Max swallowed all the saliva that had started to collect up in his throat. 'Why? Now where do I go?' He thought about how to ask her.

Mariam opened the door to the outside and before they properly made it outside, a smaller boy with a pair of blue-rimmed glasses and messy brown hair ran right into them. All three of them fell on the carpeted floor. Lots of paper where scattered on the around them.

The boy looked at the people he ran into. "Ahh! Mariam! There you are!" He quickly scrambled onto his feet and approached Mariam who was lying beside Max with her hand on his bag.

She stood up, trying to shake her hand off of Max's bag. "Did you find something?" She questioned eagerly.

Kenny nodded frantically. "Come on." He flapped his hand, signalling for her to follow him.

Mariam managed to free herself from the blonde's bag before she started to head off.

"Wait!" Max called as he stood up, "Do you want to go to the amusement park reopening with me on Friday?" He shouted.

By the time Max had finished asking, Mariam and Kenny were almost completely out of sight.

'Great.' Max thought, 'I put myself through that for nothing.' He reached for his bag and swung it onto his back when he heard a tap against the glass door. Looking over, he saw a small shine against the blue carpet. He picked it up and realised what it was and who it belongs to.

"Max."

At the sound of his name, Max turned his attention to the direction of the voice. It was Emily.

In the Boys' Dorm...

The door to Max and Rei's room swung open abruptly and entered a frustrated looking Max. He flopped onto his bed and let out a sigh.

Rei entered the dorm almost straight after Max's sigh. He dropped bag onto his bed and took a bottle of water from the mini fridge. "Something bothering you?" He asked as he opened the bottle and prepared to take a sip.

Max sat up and crossed legs, sitting in a childish manner. "It's nothing." He forced a smile.

Rei, taking this as a sign that his friend didn't want to discuss the matter, shrugged and left the blond alone and headed off to the gym.

Max layed back down. "What should I do..." He wondered to out loud, "Mariam was pretty far ahead when I asked but..." Max let out a frustrated groan and sprung back up again. His hand wandered its way to his trouser pocket and he pulled out the ring he picked- Mariam's ring to be precise. Then he picked up his bag and started to rummage through heaps and heaps of paper until he finally found it. The new 'make- up' watch that Emily had bought for Max. He place both of the pieces of jewellery on the bed-side table, side by side.

"Hmm." Max stared from the ring to the watch. He picked up the ring and started to reason, "If I go with the ring, there's no garentee that she'll show up," he put the ring down and picked up the shiney watch with his right hand this time, "but if I go with the watch, I'll be in a proper relationship again... But then again, I could ruin all chances with the ring by saying yes to the watch."

Max raised his arm into the air with both the ring and the watch in one hand and was about to launch it forward straight into the solid wall ahead of him when he stopped.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

It was his phone. He had recieved a text message but with his dilemma, he couldn't care less who it was (though his suspicion was Tyson telling him to meet him at the arcade with a pocket full of silver coins). Having thought of that, he voted ignoring the text for now.

Max picked up the two valuable objects again, then laid them down and left.

* * *

At the gym...

"Argggg... This is so heavy!" Tyson whined for the umpteenth time today about how heavy the weights were.

Kai and Rei went to the gym on a regular basis but for Tyson, up until yesterday, he didn't even know that such a thing even existsed! He had been made by his newly rehired 'instructor' to do countless reps with weights after running for what felt like forever on the treadmill.

"How... Is this... Going to... Help?" Tyson gasped as he tried to do several continues chin ups.

"You're building up a strong physique." Rei stated with confidence.

Kai and Tyson gave him a weird look.

"...Or that's what I hear anyway..." Rei murmered under his breath before speaking up and attempting to change the subject, "So have you spoken to Hilary since you poured hot tea on her?"

"Errr, well, no." Tyson replied, "I've been avoiding her so that way she'll definitely come to the amusement park with me."

Rei nodded as he swapped his weights for a heavier set. "What about you Kai? Are going to go to the amusement park?"

Tyson and Rei looked round. Somewhere during their conversation, Kai had made his way to the treadmill that Tyson swore almost killed him.

"I have my plans." Kai answered monotonously.

* * *

Tyson and Rei looked at each other.

Max woke up to the odd but soothing sensation of his phone vibrating.

After Max had returned from his walk, he took a shower to relax himself. He feel asleep soon after his shower and didn't wake till he felt his phone. He sat up and flicked it open.

_2 unread messages_

He read the one that woke him up first.

_Maxie, I don't want to force into anything but I think we should give our relationship another try. I hope you agree._

_Emily x_

Max ruffled his hair in frustration. 'Great.' He thought, 'Is Emily trying to guilt trip me?'

He pushed the thought out of his head then moved onto the second text.

_Where and what time am I meeting you at on Friday?_

_Mariam_

Suddenly, all his troubles were gone.

* * *

Wow. Almost done. One more chapter to go. I just hope I haven't lost my dear reviewers :)


	14. Chapter 13: It All Ends Here

**All it took was Eye Contact**

The last chapter already. I can't believe it. I think I'm going to cry... Just kidding! But read on, people!

**Chapter 13: It all ends here:**

It was Friday morning, otherwise known as the day of the amusement park reopening. There were still several hours to go before Max was due to meet Mariam. He had not see her since Kenny ran into them the other day, knocking both of them off their feet and onto the floor. But after thinking about it, he had not seen Kenny since then either. Max was snapped out of his line of thought when Rei called his name. He looked at him with sleepy eyes.

"Don't you have to get up and get ready for tonight?" Rei asked while towel drying his hair.

Max sat up on his bed, his usual happy-go-lucky smile spread across his lips. "I guess I should." Max said before quickly yawning.

"Woah." Rei commented, "What happened to the whole 'only girls get ready so early' remark?"

Max ignored his roommate and slowly clambered out of his warm and comforting bed. He looked at his bedhead and half opened eyes that had reflected of the mirror hanging on the wall. 'I have got a lot of work to do.' He thought to himself.

* * *

Mariah woke up all giddy. She hummed to herself as she danced about, holding various outfits in front of herself, unable to settle on one for her date tonight.

Mariam sat up on her bed reading a book. She didn't share her friend's excitement. She thought about what Kenny had told her about the history of the SaintShields and she pieced the little information she knew into this and it was not looking good. She couldn't even concentrate on her book!

Mariah suddenly appeared in front of her, a different attire in each hand: in her left hand, she held a pair of white skinny jeans and a sparkly, pink halter top and in her right hand, there was a yellow summer dress which had frilly edges at the bottom and a belt of yellow flowers with a white pair of leggings. "Which one shouid I wear? A," Mariah held her left hand further up, "Or B?" She lowered her left hand and raised her right.

Mariam looked up at her roommate. "It doesn't matter if Rei's going to compliment you anyway."

Mariah put them both down on her bed. "I know but I want the to wear the one that will make him unable to take his eyes off me." Mariah stood in front of the vanity and tried on different, but similarly shaded, lip glosses before wiping it off and trying on another.

Mariam shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Of course." Sometimes Mariam could not understand why Mariah was so picky with her clothes. For Mariam, it was simple, you pick an outfit and wear it for the day. Like just now, she had on a pair of dark skinny jeans and a long white top that had a low neckline. She will wear it now; she will wear it tonight.

Mariah was in the middle of applying eyeliner when she noticed the look she got from Mariam. "Don't you care about how you'll look on your date with Max tonight?" She finished doing her eyes and turned round to question Mariam.

The blunette tore her gaze away from her book to look at the giddy teen. "Two questions. One is how did you know I have a date tonight with Max and two, should I care?" She asked, the latter one was more rhetorical than anything.

It was Mariah's turn to shake her head. "Mariam, Mariam, Mariam. Don't you want Max to be all over you."

Mariam actually thought about what her friend said, and shuddered at the thought of her and Max being like Mairah and Rei, or Enrique and Julia. "Heck no." Mariam replied as she got up from her bed and headed towards the door.

Mariah gasped at what she said but Mariam didn't hear it as she had left the room already.

* * *

Tyson poked his head out of his dorm room. He looked left, then slowly turned to look right. 'The coast is clear.' He thought to himself as he looked left again and started heading towards his right, walking into something pretty solid. He could not bare to turn his head to see what or who it was.

"Hi Tyson." Greeted a familiar voice that made him feel at ease again.

"Maxie, good to see you." Tyson straightened up and patted Max's back. "What brings you here, my bud?" He asked, trying to act natural.

"The exit." Max pointed straight ahead. "But since you're here, let's go grab some breakfast." He started to drag the dark blue-haired teen along with him, not that he needed to do so.

A few minutes later, the two boys had found an empty table and settled in their seats, though it wasn't difficult to find an unoccupied table seeing as most of the students were too busy getting psyched up as well as ready for the amusement park opening tonight. There was a rumour going around that the hundredth couple that went got to go in and do everything for free!

The two boys barely had a chance to take a bite out of their pancakes before they were joined by Rei.

"Hey guys." Rei greeted as he sat down on the seat next to Max and across from an anxious Tyson.

Tyson's eyes suddenly widened, causing both Max and Rei to look where he was looking and when they turned back to face Tyson, he was gone and there appeared to be an angry Hilary chasing after him. But the boys' gaze landed on something or rather, something else that seemed just as unusual as Tyson leaving a plate with food on it.

"I can't wait till tonight." Mathilda said to a boy, who was on the other side of the wall, inside the school building.

"I'll meet you at the entrance tonight at seven thirty." The boy replied back.

"Maybe then no one will notice us going together."

Back at the table...

Max ad Rei watched Mathilda's lips move. She was not standing near anyone and she was facing the brick wall so it looked as if she was talking to it. Too bad the boys were out of earshot

"Who is she talking to?" Max and Rei asked in unison as their eyes were still fixed on the pink-haired teen and her suspicious behaviour.

Their attention was drawn from Mathilda and back to their own table when Dunga smashed his fist on the wooden table, taking a large chunk of it off. Max and Rei jumped in their seats from the loud sound.

"H-hi there." Max stuttered out as he looked up towards the big guy.

"Have you seen Mariam or Joseph?" Ozuma asked, stepping in front of Dunga.

Max and Rei shook their heads.

"Where could they be?" Ozuma asked himself in a stressed tone.

'Why does this not sound good.' Max thought.

* * *

Knock knock.

The door opened. On one side was Rei, who was wearing a pair of dark blue- almost black- jeans and a white button up shirt with the top few buttons undone. On the other side was Mariah. With no help from Mariam, she finally settled on outfit B and a pair of brown strappy sandals. She gave her boyfriend a kiss on the lips and prepared to shut the door.

"Where's Mariam?" Rei asked.

"I haven't seen her since this morning." Mariah answered as she did a final check to make sure everything that she would need was inside her clutch. "Why? Max isn't going to stand Mariam up, is he?" Mariah asked, looking concerned. She had her hands on her hips.

"No." Rei answered, "But he might be the one that's going to be stood up." He muttered to himself.

* * *

Max had just arrived at the entrance of the amusement park and without actually entering, lots of memories of him and his parents immediatly came flooding back into his mind. The loud music, bright assortment of lights and overwhelming smell of different foods bombarded three of his senses. everything made him fell slight nostalgic.

At the side of the brightly coloured ticket counters, was a tall fence that allowed people to look down into the amusement park (the land outside of the park is raised) however it also stopped people from trying to sneak in without paying the admission fee.

Max looked at his watch, he had been waiting around for half an hour. He walked over to the fence and looked down at the people in there, enjoying themselves. He could make out some people he knew.

From the looks of things, Rei had already spent a small fortune on winning prizes for Mariah, who had an even brighter smile that usual plastered across her pretty face. Rei on the other hand, was walking behind Mariah with a look of concern towards the suuden decline in green in his wallet.

It looked like Tyson and Hilary had sorted out their little problem too. They were walking past a hot dog and burger stand, hand in hand, though Tyson looked like he was in pain. Maybe it was because he walked past a food stall and could not get away to buy anything, or perhaps it was because Hilary was holding his hand too tightly.

But the next couple Max spotted surprised him the most. In fact, he did not even know that they were a couple! Kai and Salima sat on a bench that was slightly further away from everyone else with an ice-cream each. Salima was licking her ice-cream when it fell out of her hand and onto the ground and Kai, being a gentleman, gave her the rest of his, earning a kiss on the cheek. He was never that keen on ice-cream anyway.

Over by the tunnel of love, one of the red heart decorated boats emerged from the tunnel with Enrique and Julia, who were kissing. It did not look like they knew that the boat had came out from the dark.

Max looked at his watch again. Another five minutes had past and there were still no signs of Mariam. He was on the verge of leaving when he heard a loud bell that caught pretty much everybodies attention.

"We have our lucky one hundredth couple!" Announced a man with a big belly under a red and white stripy shirt. He held up the hands of the lucky couple who's faces had turned into the deepest shade of red possible. Everyone was shocked to see this couple which consisted of Mathilda and Raul. Mathilda was looking down in embarrasment as was Raul, whose face was the same shade as his hair. They were going to have a lot of interrogation to go through later.

"Thank God that's not me over there."

"You could say that again." Max agreed, but wait, wasn't he standing there by himself? He whirled round to see long locks of blue hair; Mariam's hair. "You came?" Max shouted like a little kid.

"That's a stupid question. I'm standing right here, aren't I?" Mariam asked rhetorically. She had the same outfit on as earlier and the book form earlier in her hands too.

Max nodded. He held out a small, shiny object towards her.

Mariam looked at it. "My ring." She thought back to the last time she wore it but she could not remember. "Why do you have this?" she asked as she took it and placed it back on its rightful place.

"It got caught on my bag last time we were walking in the corridor just outside the English department." Max explained, "And where were you? You know Ozuma and Dunga were looking for you?"

"Just let them worry for awhile." Mariam said, "And where I've been is... A long story."

"I have time." Max urged her to go on. He waited so long so he at least deserved an explaination.

"Why don't we find a place to go eat and I'll explain what happened to you but, keep it to yourself."

* * *

Max and Mariam made it into the amusement park later than they expected due to Max insisting on paying Mariam's way in and Mariam declining but she gave in to Max's persistance eventually. Max also insisted on buying Mariam food, which after insisting for awhile, Mariam gave in again, allowing Max to buy her a bottle of coke and a burger before treating himself to candy floss- a lot of it too. They settled down on the grassy area that led up to the fence, there was a nice view of the bright lights.

"I went to see Elle today." Mariam said. The statement caught Max's attention. "Actually, I went with Joseph."

"Why?" Max asked. His candy floss had reduced in size dramatically.

"This is where the story gets long. The last time we walking outside English we saw Kenny. He led me to go tell me about his new found information about the SaintShields."

"That's the clan that's connected to your jewellery, right?" Max asked.

"Right. It's also the clan that I'm supposed to be a part of. You see Kenny found out a lot about the clan including where they live and their beliefs, one of which I realised is very relevant to me." Mariam paused to take a deep breath. "A child that contains only half of SaintShields blood is not allowed to associate with any members of the clan or have anything to do with them."

"But you have the jewellery that is native to the clan." Max pointed out. He was not sure about where this was going and he was supposedly smart.

"True. I thought about that one for a long time too but then a thought hit me while Mariah was rambling on this morning and I had to go investigate this by doing another interrogation session with Elle. I argued with her and I found the answer at last." Mariam stopped talking.

Max looked at her. Her face was expressionless. He urged her to go on.

"My suspicion was right. I am a true SaintSheild." Mariam smiled at that. "But my mother had an affair with someone in the clan and because of this, I was made to leave the clan when the truth surfaced. I was four at the time and Joseph was still a baby. It was during this time that I met Ozuma and Dunga. They exist because of an affair too."

"That's pretty confusing to workout." Max thought out loud.

"It was." Mariam agreed. "But it feels better now that I know and I can actually enjoy myself now."

"I'm glad because I was thinking we should-"

"I was thinking... I was thinking about leaving."

"What?" Max shouted. Just when he was finally plucking up the courage to ask her out properly.

"It's sudden but I feel I really need to go find my biological family." Mariam laid back onto the grass and looked up to the darkening blue sky.

"What about school?" Max asked. He couldn't believe that Mariam was planning on leaving. He looked at her, waiting for her to respond.

"I can't focus on school after knowing what I learned today. I'll be away for awhile so I'm going to be homeschooled." Mariam replied. She looked at him. Max had his head down, it was evident to Mariam that he was upset about her leaving. She felt pang of guilt. Mariam thought that Max had liked her and looking at him now, she was sure her hunch was correct. She was not sure about how to cheer the one who usually cheered her up but she could try. Mariam sat up and used one hand to move Max's head towards her. She planted kiss on his lips, a short brief one.

But it worked. Max had a tint of red spread across his cheeks. Mariam laid back down on the grass, her eyes were shut.

"If you're only going to be around for a limited amount of time then I better do this now or I might not have a chance to later." Max said as he shuffled over and leaned in towards her. Mariam opened one eye to see what he was doing. He was stealing her book. "Bet you can't out run me!" He shouted back as he ran down the hill.

Mariam laughed and got up, "You're dead Maxie!" And with that they ran into the crowds...

However...

"Oh Rei! I want that one too!"

"Don't you think you have enough prizes already, Mariah?"

* * *

Well, that's my first fanfic ever completed! I didn't think I'd finish it but I did! My next thing id a TyHil fic. I'll get round to it soon... I hope!

I also hope you'll review this! Thanks for everyone who reviewed! Have a nice day :)


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